Back to the Start
by dariv14
Summary: Place after Time Compression and Ultimecia's death. It's about the future of the main characters and their enemies. Has Ultimecia died after all or not?
1. Chapter 1

Back to the Start (I)

It's been 3 years since Ultimecia's death. Everyone still wonders if something wrong happened to the present though time compression. In what kind of person in what generation did Ultimecia gave her powers? Everyone was afraid that wasn't over, even they didn't admit that.

All these years, our heroes secured peace around the world. Actually, the last military action was them going after Ultimecia! Squall was the Balamb Garden leader. While having that place, he took one of the greatest, if not the greatest, decisions in his life. He decided to quit.

When he announced it, everyone worried. They didn't want him to leave the Garden under another command since Cid was out. Squall had considered about everything, including leadership. He contacted Cid and Edea and they agreed to live in the Garden while taking his duties.

Everyone in the Garden wanted him to remember them, so they planned events about him. Selphie was the person in charge about the "Squall Festival" as she had named it. They wanted to thank him because he made them give their best and never give up.

But what lead him to that decision? Of course it was Rinoa! They planned to get married and celebrate their love.

The day of the festival had arrived and gone like DoomTrain! Everyone had a great time. Actually when everyone went to sleep, six friends headed for the balcony with some chairs and had a sit. The Garden was heading to Balamb and it was great outside with the view of the sea. They reminded their past adventures. Deling City, Timbers Resistance, Desert Prison and so many other places. They shared their plans for the future.

At some point they left too. They went to their rooms. "Are you sure you want to do this? SeeD is your life." Rinoa said. "You, are my life" Squall replied and kissed her. Then they laid down and tried to have some sleep. Squall kept thinking his friends, his SeeDs, the Garden and every single moment he had in this 10 years that had past. He knew he needed to rest for the emotional farewell he was going to face the next morning. But his thoughts didn't allow him to sleep. He kept thinking and thinking and thinking….'Stop it!' he said in his mind. He managed to stop thinking and slept.

The next morning, the Garden had sad news. As soon as they reached Balamb and Cid along with Edea came on, Selphie, Quistis, Irvine and Zell decided to quit too from being a SeeD. They loved it so much, but they needed to try some other things around the world. Irvine got to work as a bodyguard at the Presidential Palace in Esthar. Zell lived with his mother at Balamb and helped the town. Quistis and Selphie wished to stay in the Garden but only as instructors. Selphie wanted to teach magic and organize the Garden Festival. Rinoa and Squall headed for timber. They found a place there and decided to live. Actually Selphie was the only one that was felling horrible for the separation of their Gang. She wanted to do anything with them. Anything! Every one of them was feeling sad but none admit it.

Some days have past and the invitations for the marriage arrived at their mail boxes. It was going to be only them and their friends at a church near the cliffs of the sea. It was a great place. But only Selphie appeared there. She was off the Garden to visit her friend at Trabia Garden and she arrived just in time for the marriage. Squall was furious with everyone else. "We are going to remind them they have friends. ", Squall said. And so they did. They took the train to Balamb. Selphie knew that the Garden was returning there and Zell lived at Balamb.

They got in the train. Selphie really liked trains and had finally written a song about them. She didn't sing though this time. She wanted a new adventure to come. They sat down at a cabin and waited as they went underwater. They kept silence for a while. Rinoa wanted to speak and so she did. "What about Seifer? I haven't seen him for a while. ", she said. "I heard he became the new headmaster of the Desert Prison. ", Squall said. Suddenly the door opened. Everyone looked at its direction. It was Laguna! "I heard your voices and came to find you! ", he said. Everyone smiled when they saw him.

Actually it's been a long time since they saw him again. Squall wanted some time to understand some things he told him. It wasn't easy to find out that he was his father. Rinoa helped him a lot.

They shared with Laguna their thoughts about this "Reunion Trip ", and he was pleased. "If I can help in any way, it would be my pleasure. ", he said. "Thanks dad. What business do you have in Balamb? ", Squall said. "Actually I have some business with the Garden and they told me it was going back to Balamb today, so I took the train. ", he replied. "Oh great. I… ", Selphie said and she was interrupted by the train control. "Final stop at Balamb. Everyone get ready."

When they got out, they experienced something really strange. It was Lunatic Pandora just outside of Balamb! It was demolished 3 years ago, but it seems like it's been rebuild. Before someone tried to talk, a door opened and there was a really familiar person. "Seifer! ", Squall said. He came close to our friends really quick. 'Where did he got this power? ', Squall thought. "Leading Ultimecia to Time Compression was a huge mistake. ", he said and really quick he took Rinoa and Laguna and he flew to Lunatic Pandora. Then he casted a spell to Squall making him faint. "What an extraordinary power! ", Squall said as he fainted.

Seifer had won this time by taking two of Squall's beloved persons. He found a source of great power? He said about Time Compression, plus Ultimecia. But Ultimecia is dead. Or not?


	2. Chapter 2

Back to the Start (II)

While Squall fell down, Selphie yelled for Zell who got there quickly. They carried Squall to Zell's house. Selphie took charge quickly and called Irvine and Quistis. They needed help from the Garden and a Ragnarok to gain access to Lunatic Pandora. She told them what happened and explained the situation. Irvine couldn't help cause at peace time the Ragnaroks where only for missions to the space and none was at the base of Esthar. Quistis though explained to Cid the situation and he boosted up the engines so they can make it there faster than planned. Edea who was on the bridge with her husband heard about it and she insisted that it was not a good time to attack. "We want a plan and we can't just go there and attack. It may be better to let this one and organize for a certain victory. ", she said. "Quistis I think she is right. We need some time and more help in order to rescue them. ", Cid agreed with his wife. Quistis nodded and called back to Selphie. Selphie understood and returned to Squall.

When Squall woke up he found there everyone except Irvine and the two missing people. "Did we rescue them? ", he asked. "We couldn't have the help we needed to do so. ", Selphie replied. Squall nodded and tried to stand up. "Take it easy man. We don't know what he did to you but Edea had you fixed. ", Zell said. Squall managed to sit with his face down. "Look on the bright side! ", Zell said. "What bright side are you talking about Zell? I lost two people from my life! ", Squall said standing up. "We know where Pandora is heading and the Garden agreed to help all the way ", Zell said taking a step back. Squall looked at Quistis for a moment. She nodded. "Sorry man. I lost my temper. Let's get going. ", Squall said giving his hand to Zell while he responded the same way.

Everyone arrived on the office finding there Cid, Edea and Nida. "Great! We can head for Esthar now hopping everything will go well. ", Cid said when he saw Squall's look. Everyone agreed and Nida took his place on the bridge. Cid got close to the intercom microphone. "Please pay attention. We are leaving Balamb shortly. We are heading to Esthar where we shall attempt a rescue mission. You will be informed about the plan. I shall leave the leadership to Squall who will lead the mission. There will probably be an attack in the future, so embrace yourselves. Thank you. ". "Thanks for letting me be the leader. ", Squall said. "What are you talking about? You would definitely be the leader every time you return. You were born for this title. ", Cid said while everyone agreed. Squall nodded.

And so their journey started.

Meanwhile at Esthar, Lunatic Pandora took place over Tear's Point and waited. Scientists of Esthar founded strange cause the Moon's monsters activity grew. Was there another Lunar Cry was going to take place? They wanted to ask some advice from Odine, but he was enjoying his retirement. He didn't want to help anyone.

Inside Lunatic Pandora, Seifer was preparing the place for the cosmic event. He casted a row of spells on the Crystal Pillar. Suddenly he was asked a really strange request. Laguna asked him to chat. Seifer agreed to chat with them. "Why are you doing all of this? ", Laguna asked. "What do you mean? I am the bad guy! ", Seifer replied as he laughed. Laguna explained that even as a bad guy he didn't have to harm people or do bad things. Seifer laughed harder and harder, louder and louder. "Hey! You are not Seifer. What did you do to him? I know him and he is nothing like you. ", Rinoa said and he stopped laughing. "Of course he is not like this! He is mentally weak but on the other hand a strong body. I am just using his body in this time. ", he replied. "I don't understand. Who are you? ", Rinoa asked. "When you lead Ultimecia to Time Compression she succeeded in allowing me to join your time while you were going to the future. I am Orion, a great evil of my time. But Ultimecia made a great work in hiding any evidence of my existence in books and many other papers by time traveling. So I am no one for you, but in my time I almost destroyed humanity! ", he replied and laughed evilly. "Stop it! We killed Ultimecia, we can kill you too! ", Rinoa said making him stop. He got close to them. "You think you killed Ultimecia? You didn't even touch her! You managed to kill her illusion on the future while she was finding a great place to hide in the present! She was hiding on the moon all this time but now it's time to come and together we will dominate the world! ", he said and started to laugh evilly again. "You disgust me. At least let us go. You don't need us. ", Rinoa said. "I will let you go. But only when it's time. No sooner! ", Orion replied looking at Rinoa's eyes finding rage and hate in them. "You don't need to have this rage in you. You will harm the seed that is growing within you. ", Orion said looking at Rinoa with a smile. Rinoa looked at him now with a really furious look. "Hey, calm down. ", Laguna whispered to Rinoa. "Ok now. I think you can leave. Go and spread about the dominators of the world! ", Orion said. "We will return! ", Laguna said and took Rinoa's hand and moved to the exit.

Meanwhile, at Esthar's boarders Cid was requesting permission to enter. The Esthar president didn't allow any military vehicles inside his country and without Laguna there they couldn't get in. They kept thinking and thinking. 'What can we do…? '. "What about Odine? ", Zell said breaking the silence. "Great idea, but he has retired and not willing to help anyone. ", Irvine said. "It worth's a try. Let me speak. ", Squall said. Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. Squall took his cell out of his pocket as he got out of the room. "This is Odine. Who is at the other side of the phone? ", he said as he picked it up. "Hey! It's Squall Leonheart. ", Squall replied. "Don't continue. I am not willing to help anyone. ", Odine replied. "Come on Dr. Odine. It's my father and my wife in there. I really need them. ", Squall said. "So is it my old friend Laguna? Look I am afraid that I will do something that will affect in the future as I did with Ultimecia. ", Odine replied. "I need you to just convince your president to let us get in. That's it. Then you can continue your vacations. Even my enemy possesses great power. Magic and Physic power. Aww you are not intresting in this. ", Squall said. "Hey! Wait a minute. How can a human possess such a power? ", Odine said. "I don't know. He attacked me with both magical and physical attacks. I don't know how I can defeat him but I just need you to get me inside. Will you do it? ", Squall said. "I will do it and I will make you a device to defeat him! ", Odine replied. "But you just said…", Squall said and he was interrupted. "I know what I said! I will help you. Give me some time", Odine said and hanged the phone.

After a while the Garden was allowed in Esthar and they headed to the president at once. Once Squall and Zell go to him they found out they were in a difficult position. "I can't just let it be there! I will send a missile to end this story! ", the president said. "We need to rescue my family! Don't be mad. Let us finish our rescue mission and the fire anything you like. ", Squall said. "There is a good chance Lunar Cry will start and I can't take my chances. I will destroy it and send it to outer space! ", he said. Squall didn't listen anything else and quickly got out of the room. 'Where is he going? ', Zell thought. "Sir, we can attack with the Garden SeeDs. Don't waste your missiles. Just give us the opportunity to try accomplish our mission. ", Zell said with a calm voice. "You boy won't understand. I have to attack. ", the president replied in a calm voice too. Zell turned his back with disappointment drawn on his face. "You are allowed to attack with your troops but I will fire a missile right now. ", he said as he saw Zell leaving. He was certain that his missile would destroy it before they even get there. "Thank you sir! ", Zell said rushing out of the room.

Once he went to the Garden, he told them everything. "Where is Squall? ", Selphie said. "Guys you want to see this! ", Nida yelled from the bridge. Quistis, Zell and Selphie who were in the office got quickly up followed by Edea and Cid. "Oh it's starting. ", Selphie said. "Who is heading to Lunatic Pandora with a car? ", Zell said. "Oh my god! ", Quistis said while looking though binoculars. "It is Squall! ", she added. "We can't stop him now. ", Edea said.

Anyone could she the red beam heading for earth. As soon as it entered the atmosphere the sky turned red. But nothing that has been expected happened. There weren't any monsters falling from the sky. "Where are the monsters? ", Zell said. Then they saw it. A great light made them blind for a while. It was slowing going down heading for Lunatic Pandora.

Squall was driving really fast and twice he narrowed escape some rocks. He tried to get a shortcut but it there wasn't any asphalt there so it made it difficult for him. While he was driving the stereo which was close made some strange noises. 'It must have been broken. ', he thought. "Citizens of Esthar. This is a live broadcast from Lunatic Pandora. We don't come in pace and we will dominate you and the rest of the world! Orion and Ultimecia will be your rulers! Hahahahahahaha! ", they both laughed evilly while Orion finished his speech. 'Ultimecia? How is that possible? ', Squall thought and step on the throttle.

At the Garden everyone was shocked. They didn't really knew how to react. Irvine stormed into the office. "The Esthar President is preparing a Ragnarok with messengers about peaceful conversation. ", Irvine said trying to catch his breath. "What? Is he serious? He didn't hear what they said? ", Zell said. "I informed Odine but he is working on something right now. He is the only one that can change his mind. ", Irvine said. "Where is Squall? ", he asked. "He is trying to save them by his own. ", Quistis said. "I have another one for you. Who the hell is Orion? ", Zell asked. They lifted their shoulders. "The Ragnarok has just left! ", Xu yelled.

Squall had almost arrived at Tear's Point when he saw to figures walking towards him. 'Travelers? ', he thought. When he got close they start moving their hands. 'I shall stop. ', Squall thought. Then he saw them. They were Rinoa and Laguna. "Hey! How? Why? ", Squall said when he stopped. Rinoa laughed. "We have important news! Let's get back quickly. ", Laguna insisted. There was a Ragnarock above their heads. "What are they doing? ", Squall said. Then a great darkness beam was unleashed and destroyed the Ragnarock. It just turned to derbies and fell down. "Oh my god! ", Rinoa said as she closed her eyes and fell into Squall's arms.

This was probably a sign of war. Esthar needed Laguna's and Rinoa's knowledge.

'This is a whole new adventure! ', Selphie thought. She was looking forward to it.


	3. Chapter 3

Back to the Start (III)

Note: There are some changes in the plot. The ragnarok didn't have messengers but everyone from our heroes and Edea with Cid except Squall and Rinoa.

"Let's go see what happened there. They know how to react on random situation", Squall said trying to comfort Rinoa. "He is right Rinoa. Let's hurry and get there", Laguna agreed with Squall. Rinoa nodded and everyone got in the car. Squall was worried, even though he hid it from Rinoa, so he step on the gas. They got there pretty fast and they were relieved to see that everyone was safe. They only saw Edea unconscious. They got out of the car and they ran to Edea. "Is everyone okay?", Rinoa asked while she got next to Edea. "Yeah, everyone is alright. Matron cast a spell that protected us from getting any damage and then she felt unconscious.", Zell said. "I'll try a life or a cure heal", Rinoa said and prepared for the cast. "We already did both. She will be okay.", Selphie said while she stopped her from casting and smiled. Rinoa nodded. "We have important stuff to tell you but first we need to get out of here and back to the garden.", Laguna said. "Right!", Squall said and picked up his phone. "We called Odine. Some sort of transportation will be here soon.", Quistis said and smiled. "Oh, right. Of course you did that.", Squall said. He looked kind of skeptical. "What's wrong Squall?", Irvine asked. "No time for that. Laguna and Rinoa will tell you the stuff when we get back.", he replied. "Well we have some time to spare until we get out of here.", Irvine said. "We need Odin to hear this as well.", Laguna said. "Oh, yeah. Odin.", Irvine said.

Some hours later after everyone got back, got some minor rest and Edea woke up, they gathered at the Garden's Office. "Let's see.", Laguna said and he start saying the story along with Rinoa. Everyone was kind of shocked. "Wait a second.", Irvine said breaking up the silence. Everyone turned at him. " Everything we did back then was just nothing? It looked like we won.", he said. "Another fault of mine as well...", Odine said. "We always thought that when you change the past or the future there will be some impact in present.", Odine started saying. "Well this is just a proof that this isn't true. She must have gone further back in time and changed the fact that we even tried to kill her. Or even more she could have changed it in a way that the present stood like it was. But the main question is how do we know this is the present. Ultimecia's present is our future. But how can it be the future when whatever we do it changes.", Odine said. "Oh Odine man, come one. Don't confuse us with this now. Why don't you give lectures in some place with this stuff?", Zell said. Selphie punched him in the arm and nailed him with her gaze. "Sorry.", Zell said. Odine smiled at him. "Well I have a plan in mind that could work. But I need the night to do some researching.", Odine said. "You got it. We give you a night, but you have to convince the President of Easthar not to do anything crazy with missiles or stuff. Every second we win it's precious.", Squall said. "Yeah he is a tough guy.", Zell said. "Don't worry, I will explain some of my plan to him and he will even allow me to use resources of Easthar.", Odin said and laughed. "Great. We are on stand by then and we wait news from you.", Squall said. "Not exactly. You are gonna rest all night. You and your SeeDs and we are gonna gather at the Quad in the morning to explain everything.", Odin said. Everyone nod and got out of the office heading to their own directions.

It was gonna be a tough night for everyone. Odin had to prepare a whole attack plan with some sort of way to beat the "dominators of the world". The rest of them had to sleep which wasn't gonna be easy for them. They were all determined for tomorrow. The are going to kill them once and for all. At least they were hoping so, because the last time they believed they succeeded, they were wrong. The SeeDs that somehow raised up on the stories of Squall and his team that beat the evil Sorceress were now falling apart. Quistis was the one that gave the orders to them about resting and preparing for tomorrow. "Is it possible Quistis? You guys beat them, right?", a SeeD asked. "We did.", Quistis said with a confused face. "All we know now is that we are gonna beat them one more time.", she said and smiled. 'Can't wait for tomorrow', Selphie thought. She was the most determined of them all. She was looking forward for an adventure and now she got an extreme one. She considered herself lucky, but she knew this was selfish. 'We are gonna saw them who is boss around here', she thought.

The light came in from the windows of the Garden. Everyone rested or not, gathered slowly to the Quad. Once they were all there Odin got up while everyone else took a sit on the floor. The Easthar president also join them. "Thanks for gathering. I have some important stuff to say. I was researching all night and I found out that I already had a way of defeating those guys. I've got 2 bullets here. Those bullets actually are capsules. In fact they are Anti-Magic capsules. They are meant to capture weak magicians. I repeat. Weak magicians. I only had one so it took me all night to do another one. That means, I need 2 great gun users that will use those bullets in the perfect time to capture those villains. I also need someone to lead the attack and well he is going to prepare a battle plan cause it's not my specialty.", Odine said and waited for someone to react. Squall and Irvine got up pretty fast. "We can use our weapons to use the bullets you have there.", Squall said. "Great.", Odine said. "I have an idea.", Laguna said and everyone turned to him. "Why don't we let Squall to do the plan and the leadership thing?", Laguna said. Everyone started nodding to each other. "You all agree?", Squall asked. "Yes!", was heard loudly. "Thanks for your support everyone.", Squall said. Irvine and Odine took a sit and Squall left alone standing up. "First things first. The Garden is going on a fight. This means that everyone in him must be ready to fight. I am sure everyone is.", he said and smiled. "Next thing is about the Garden's purpose. We all saw the beam that took down a Ragnarok easily. So we can use the Garden, which has shields, to distract their attention. The Garden once in close range will stop and everyone will go out for a fight. There will probably be some kind of troops, but who knows what. There could possibly be no troops, but just let's get ready to fight.", Squall said as he start walking in a short block of space. "Here is another thing. We need a Ragnarok.", he said while he turned and faced the President. He nodded. Squall nodded and continued speaking. "While they are abstracted with the battle, the Ragnarok will have enough time to get close and open a hole on that thing the same way it did the last time. After we are inside we will proceed on the final battle with those two and capture them. It's a straight forward plan. Nothing tricky, nothing wrong. Now I only need Zell and Quistis to lead the attack of the Garden. Irvine, Selphie, Rinoa and I will be on the Ragnarok and we will be the ones that will get in combat with them.", Squall said. "Any questions or disagreements?", he asked. There was silence. "Okay then! Let's move out as soon as we can.", he said and everyone stood up.

After almost an hour, a Ragnarok landed next to the Garden. The crew from inside the Ragnarok got back to Easthar. "It's all yours Selphie.", Squall said as he smiled. She smiled back and rushed inside. "Let's start.", Squall said to everyone else. Everyone nodded and rushed to their positions. As soon as Squall joined his team in the cockpit, they saw the Garden moving. "In twenty minutes we start. No sooner. Okay Selphie?", Squall said touching her shoulder while she was sitting on the pilot sit. "Yeah yeah.", Selphie said. "I see you can't hold back, but you have to.", Squall said. "I know.", Selphie replied. At the same time in the Garden, everyone was gathering at the front gate. "We have trained hard in order to be able to beat anything that stands in our way. So whatever there is out there, it's not big deal for us.", Zell said loudly. "YEAH!", everyone yelled. Zell laughed. "Let's saw those fools what they deal with. Cause we are SeeDs", he added and everyone made noise. "Ehm Zell?", Quistis said poking him. "What's wrong?", he asked while he turned to face her. "It's a bit early for that. We still need twenty minutes to get there", she said. "Oh...", Zell said and laughed. "Everyone calm down. We have a lot of time until we get there", Quistis said and everyone laughed.

Once the Garden got there, it's front gate opened and everyone rush out in the battlefield at Tears Point. "Now what?", Zell asked. There was nothing. Dead silence. "Something is wrong here.", Xu said to Quistis. Then they saw the Ragnarok attacking the Lunatic Pandora which for a really strange reason it had it's shields deactivated. "What the ...", Squall said. After the attack a gigantic whole was on the side of Lunatic Pandora. "Really strange stuff.", Zell said as he got close to Quistis. All of sudden, monsters appeared next to the SeeDs. Some of there got scared, some of them reacted by running, some of them attacked at first sight. "Just attack them. It's normal monsters.", Zell yelled and punched the first one he saw. The monster fell down but when it fall down a new one appeared in his position, ready to fight. Zell punched that one too with a lot of power. It fell down as well and another one spawned there and attacked Zell. He avoided quickly then he yelled at Quistis "Is that possible?". "We must warn Squall to hurry and help us out.", Quistis yelled while she knocked back a monster that almost grabbed her hair. Xu run on Quistis back and helped her with a monster coming from behind. She then got Quistis woki toki from her pocket and spoke. "Squall we need help. There must be something up there that is spawning more and more monsters.", she said. "Okay, will find it.", Squall replied as he got out of Ragnarok. "It could be the Crystal Pillar.", Rinoa said. "I saw Orion doing some stuff on it when we were here with Laguna.", she added. Squall nodded. "Let's move inside.", he said. So they did. After a while they spotted the Crystal Pillar. "Can you shoot it from here?", Squall said quietly to Irvine. Irvine nodded in agreement. "Bang!", he said as he shot. It almost destroy it. "Is this enough?", Irvine asked while he turned his head to face Squall. "I don't know. We better destroy it completely.", he replied. Irvine nodded and turned to shoot again. But now there was something in front of the Crystal Pillar. "Oh my ….", Irvine did and fall back. Squall got in front of him. "So you came.", Ultimecia said as she was floating closer and closer. "I could visit you in the town, but from the time you are here, we can fight!", she added and attacked Squall. He placed his gunblade in front of him to protect himself. Rinoa also got close to help him attack Ultimecia. Irvine and Selphie took a chance to get closer to the Crystal Pillar and destroy it. But Orion appeared and in a quick spell he froze them. "Silence!", Riona yelled as she tried to silence Ultimecia. "Are you serious?", she said and laughed evilly. Squall took a chance and knocked her back. He also caster a Firaga spell on Orion who was trying to attack the frozen targets. "Go unfroze them.", Squall said to Rinoa. Rinoa got close enough and cast a dispel. The ice melt and they were free to move again. The battle was getting fierce and everyone was getting weaker. "Let's try to finish our plan", Squall yelled. Irvine and Squall tried to confuse Ultimecia and Orion but it didn't really work and Orion got Squall by the neck. "Rinoa tried to help him but Ultimecia attacked her and she had to avoid it. "Now you die, SeeD!", Orion said and he tried to move his arm to cast a spell. But there was Irvine with his gun pointing at him. "Bang!", he yelled. It was a hit and Orion got captured in Irvine's capsule. "That was close.", Squall said. Irvine nodded. Ultimecia got quickly and grab the capsule from the ground. Then she turned at Rinoa and casted some sort of spell uknown to Selphie and Rinoa. She fell down unconscious as Ultimecia got out of a whole that was created from the battle on the wall and escaped. Irvine turned and destroyed the Crystal Pillar as Squall ran to Rinoa. He got her in his arms while tears where pouring down on her face.

The monsters down never reappeared and the battle down there was won. But what kind of spell was that and what happened to Rinoa? That's what everyone up there was wondering. Squall didn't even make a sound. He was there staring Rinoa in his hands and tears were running down his cheeks.


	4. Chapter 4

Back to the Start (IV)

Squall carried Rinoa's body back to Ragnarok's, Irvine and Selphie followed him. Selphie took care of the wheel and took them back to Easthar, where Squall swiftly took Rinoa to Odine. "Please tell me, is she alright?", Squall asked while breathing heavily. "I didn't even examine her, But she has already been through all that, I bet she will be fine.", Odine answered and winked. "I'm not joking here!", Squal said with an angry look on his face. "Okay, okay! Give me a minute.", Odine said and rushed into his lab. He quickly came back, and he was holding some kind of machine in his hands. "What are you planning to do with that thing?", Squall asked. "Hmm, rape is what I had in mind.", Odine said with a serious face. "What the hell? Just go away from her!", Squall said and instantly took his gunblade out of it's case. Odine laughed intensively. Squal got a confused look on his face. "Don't joke at times like these!", Squall said while placing his sword back. Odine was still laughing while checking whether Rinoa was alright. "she is fine, She has a great mental strength. Just let her rest.", Odine said after his laughter. "Thanks Odine, Thank you so much.", Squall said while smiling and hugging Rinoa. He then took her in his arms and moved her back to the Garden, which had just arrived. "What happened?", Quistis asked after he saw Squall with Rinoa in his arms. "Come at the infirmary." he said quickly while rushing there. Squall placed Rinoa on a bed with some help from Dr. Kadowaki. "So?", Quistis asked as soon as he entered the infirmary. "Go to the bridge. Irvine and Selphie will be there and they will reporting on what happened." Let them know that Rinoa is fine, she just needs to rest.", he replied. "Okay, I'm on my way there.", she said and left quickly. She rushed to the elevator and managed to get in before the doors close. As soon as she got to the office the reports were over. "And Squall got Rinoa to Odine. That concludes our report.", Irvine said as he turned to face Quistis. "Darn, I lost it. Rinoa is fine, she is resting at the infirmary as we speak.", she said with a disappointed look on her face. "Oh great! You didn't miss anything. Orion was caught, Ultimecia took the capsule with her and attacked Rinoa with a strange spell.", Selphie said with a smile. Quistis had a troubled face. "What should we do now? Did Zell finish his report?", she asked. "Yep.", Zell replied. "I think we should search for them. We should attack again and fast.", Irvine suggested. "That could be a good idea, but I don't think that we are ready. The SeeDs need to rest after the battle they had", Quistis said while approaching the center of the room."What we could do is search for them.", she continued. "Use the Garden for a world cruise? Is that what you mean?", Cid asked. "Nope. Send scouts to nearby places. For the other continents, we will contact the governments and tell them about our mission.", she replied. "Ehm, what mission are we talking about?", Irvine interrupted. "We are gonna defeat those villains.", she replied while turning to face him. "Good idea, but how are we gonna do this?", Irvine asked again. "We'll see. For now, we just have to spot them and make sure everyone is okay and ready for battle.", she replied and crossed her arms. "Sounds okay to me... for now.", Cid said. Everyone nodded in agreement. "We 'll go to Deling City. They won't stay around here and Deling is a big city.", he added. "I'll announce our departure when we are ready", Xu said and everyone went on their own, separate ways.

"Why are they so strong?", Ultimecia said and smashed some rocks with a spell. "They are not, it's simply our fault, we underestimated them", Orion replied. "I hope that slut died from my spell.", she said with anger. "How could she survive? It's a future spell. She didn't even know what it was that hit her.", she added laughing sarcastically. Orion joined the laughter too. "I am sure you have something nice planned for our next move.", he said. "I have", she said and looked at him from head to toes. "Why did you choose him?", she asked. "Don't you think that I look cool?", he asked and posed in a heroic way. "Pathetic. I used to use him as a slave a lot of years ago.", she replied and turned her back to him. "Oh come on, he is strong physically. And that's what I lack.", he said and moved closer to her. "Let's leave this silly town. They are not fun at all.", he added. "I was hopping that we could use that grey stuff over there, a little bit more.", she said while pointing at Lunatic Pandora. Suddenly the Lunatic Pandora got hit by some missiles and there was a major explosion. "Let's forget about it", Orion said and laughed. Lunatic Pandora turned into billions of pieces and went on fire. "Off we go then. We need to find monsters and tough ones.", Ultimecia said. "Wait. I can access that fool's memories.", Orion said and closed his eyes. After a while he opened them wide open. "Found it. There is an island where high level SeeDs train at.", he said. "Griever, I summon you", Ultimecia said and Griever appeared by her side. "WoW", Orion said amazed. "What? Haven't you seen a GF before?", she said. "GF? What the hell is that thing?", Orion asked shocked. Ultimecia sighed. "It is called Guardian Force and it is a creature that is connected to our mind. They allows us to get stronger and they live peacefully with us. Well that's what happens in the present. In the future we started abusing them. But that's enough. Let's go find that place.", she said and jumped on Griever's shoulder. Orion was speechless, he couldn't believe his own eyes. He wasn't used to that kind of stuff. "I'm gonna leave you back there.", she said. Orion quickly jumped on Griever's other shoulder. "You know where to go. Guide us then!", she said. "Alright let's go.", Orion said and Griever took a huge leap forward.

"Come on, eat the stuff I brought you!", Selphie said with her high pitch voice while she was trying to feed Squall. "I'm not hungry.", Squall said without even lifting his eyes from Rinoa. "But you'll die. You don't want that!", Selphie argued. "I'm not gonna die just because I haven't eaten for a few days. Don't be ridiculous.", he replied. "I'm gonna make you eat it whether you want it or not. You haven't eaten anything for two days now. Did you at least drink the water I brought you?", she asked and took a sit next to Rinoa's bed. "I did. I think so at least.", he replied. "And go get shaved, take a bath as well. If Rinoa ends up sleeping more, you are gonna get filthy and hairy.", she said. "Just leave me alone Selhpie. Thanks for everything that you did but I don't feel like doing any of those things.", he said as he got his head up to face her. "Okay, okay.", Selphie said as she got up from her sit. "I am going to see what everyone else is planning.", Selphie said and left the room. On her way out of the room she found Zell and Irvine heading for the Infirmary. "Hey guys, wait a sec.", Selphie said and blocked their way. "What's wrong?", Irvine asked. "Squall didn't and still isn't eating any food. He just sits on a chair and stares at Rinoa's sleeping face. Say something to him. Tell him to get shaved at least.", she replied with a worried tone. They both nodded. "Let's go and see what we can do.", Zell said and went in there. 'I will wait for a while out here. Who knows, Squall might come out. But I don't want him to see me.', Selphie thought and moved slowly towards the Quad. She stood on the corridor leading to the Quad and she was able to see quite well the Infirmary and the entrance also. After a while Squall appeared, he was leaving the infirmary. 'Oh, they did it!', Selphie thought. Selphie hid behind a plant that was there, right beside her. She started laughing. 'This is ridiculous', she thought. After Squall passed by, she rushed to the Infirmary. When she got in, she saw Irvine and Zell eating Squall's food. "What in the world are you doing or should I say 'what in the world have you done?'", Selphie yelled. "Just eating.", Irvine replied and laughed. Zell laughed too. "He wasn't going to eat this anyway.", Zell said with his full mouth. "How did you manage to make him go?", Selphie said and sat next to Rinoa's bed, right in front of Irvine and Zell. "Man's secrets.", Irvine said. "Come on tell me!", Selphie said again a bit louder. "Shhhh", Dr. Kodowaki whispered. "Sorry.", Selphie said. They heard a weak voice "I know what they told him.". All automatically turned and faced Rinoa. But it was weird, she was still asleep. "I swear that it was her voice.", Irvine said. Everyone else nodded in agreement. "Talk about weird.", Zell said. Rinoa started laughing. "What the hell?", Zell said scared. Selphie started laughing as well. "You should have seen your faces!", Rinoa said and laughed even harder. "What is happing over there?",said Dr. Kodowaki while entering the room. Then she saw Rinoa laughing. "Oh, you are awake.", she said with a smile on her face. "More than awake I would say, doctor.", Irvine said. Then everyone laughed. "We have to be quiet though.", the doctor said. Everyone calmed down. "We should call Squall.", Irvine said. "He will come soon anyway, don't worry about him.", Rinoa said. "And Selphie I heard what they said to him. But I didn't really get it. It was all coded and stuff.", she added. Irvine and Zell laughed. "Okay we are going. I'm glad to see you awake Rinoa.", Irvine said and Zell agreed. "Thanks for persuading him to go and take care of himself guys.", she said and smiled. Irvine and Zell waved and left the Infirmary. "What you did was quite weird, but it was still fun", Selphie said. "I know! But I didn't want to do it on Squall.", Rinoa said. "You did well. He wasn't feeling like eating anything.", Selphie said. "I know, I was awake.", she said and slightly laughed. "You were awake since?", Selphie asked. "This morning. I saw him asleep, he was all hairy and stuff.", she replied and laughed again. "You are in a great mood right now!", Selphie said. Rinoa smiled. "Anyway, we finally have some time to talk as girls.", Rinoa said. "Yeah you are right.", Selphie said and smiled. "Are you in love with anyone?", Rinoa asked. "Well...", Selphie said and looked at the wall. "Come on say it!", Rinoa said with an evil yet cute smile. "Okay! I'm in love with Irvine.", she said quietly – her face turned red. "Oh my god! I knew it! I thought that something like that would happen!", she said. "Really?", Selphie asked. "Yeah! When you were looking at him, your expression was as if you were looking at an angel.", Rinoa said. "I tried not to do this but I ended up doing it...i hope he hasn't noticed yet.", Selphie said. "Don't worry, I am sure he hasn't. Oh wait, you won't tell him?", Rinoa asked. "I would but I am not that brave.", she replied. "You should give it a try. Who knows, it might be mutual.", Rinoa said and winked. "Do you know anything about him?", Selphie asked. "Maybe yes, maybe not.", Rinoa said while smiling. "You have to tell me!", Selphie said. "I don't know really, i'm just teasing you", Rinoa said and laughed. Selphie face palmed herself. "In my opinion, you should try talking to him, tell him about your feelings.", Rinoa said in a serious voice. Selphie nodded. "So you are awake.", Odine said after he saw Rinoa. "Yeah! Awake and in a great mood.", Rinoa said and smiled. "Now that Squall isn't around, I want to discuss about something.", he said. "You want me to go?", Selphie said as she got up. "No no. It's ok with Selphie around.", Rinoa said. "Okay.", Odine said and took a sit. Selphie got a sit as well. "Squall brought you at my lab some days ago, in order for me to examine you and take the necessary precautions based on your situation. At that point I used a machine to help me evaluate the essence of life and magical power in you. When it comes to common people, the essence of life that exists has one source and it's because and thanks to that source that it flows through our bodies. Okay?", Odine asked. "Yeah, it's pretty clear but I think I know what you are going to say.", Rinoa replied. "Oh, you are smart, aren't you?", Odine said and smiled. Rinoa smiled back at him. "I'm confused here, people!", Selphie said. "Okay okay. Surprisingly I found in Rinoa two sources of this essence, instead of one.", Odine said. "Which means?", Selphie asked. Rinoa laughed again. "I am pregnant Selphie", Rinoa said and smiled. "Oh my god! I'm so happy right now!", Selphie said with a huge smile on her face. "Thanks for not telling Squall, Odine. I really appreciate it.", Rinoa. "Got ya!", Quistis said while jumping in front of Rinoa's bed. Everyone was surprised. "I heard everything you said.", Quistis said. "Please don't say Squall.", Rinoa begged. "Okay, but you won't say it?", Quistis asked. "I will but right now he has a lot in his head. And I really want to fight them. He won't allow me to join you.", Rinoa said. "It is dangerous.", Selphie said. "I know but you guys need me", Rinoa said. "And don't worry, I will tell him when the place and time is the appropriate one.", she added. "Look at all the people that gathered here.", Squall said while entering the Infirmary. "Shhh", Rinoa said. "Oh!", Squall said and opened his eyes widely. "Come here", Rinoa said with open arms. Squall hugged her. "I missed you", he said while hugging her. "I missed you too my love", she replied. Everyone was smiling in the room. "Guys!", Zell said and interrupted them. "What's wrong?", Quistis asked. "We found them!", he said.


	5. Chapter 5

Back to the Start (V)

"I have a lot to learn.", Orion said when he saw Ultimecia doing complicated magic. Ultimecia laughed. "You don't need to go that deep into future magic. I'm gonna do all that stuff and you will use the things I create. Don't worry about it.", she said. "You are sweet when you talk to like that.", Orion said smiling. Ultimecia smiled. "Back to work!", she said as she got serious. "I want you to go absorb the power of the draw points on the island.", she said. "Why we need that?", Orion asked. "By absorbing some of them, you become stronger and there is a way of transferring some of the power to another person. So I want you to go gather those draw points as I finish up here.", she replied. Orion nodded and went off.

"What do you mean we found them?", Squall asked. "Oh right, you don't know about it.", Zell said. Squall looked confused. "We were about to send scouts to some places in order to find Ultimecia and Orion.", Zell said. "But we haven't!", Quistis said and also looked confused. "Right, we didn't. But a couple of SeeDs were already out. Not scouting, but training. Where? At our favorite spot.", Zell said and smiled. "The island?", Squall asked. "Yeah! The island closest to Hell. Odine, do you know about that island?", Zell asked. "Is that the island with the high level monsters?", Odine asked in reply. "Correct. That's the one. While the SeeDs were leaving the island and were going to Deling City they saw...", Zell said and paused. "What Zell? What did they saw?", Squall asked as he had enough. "Griever.", he said. Everyone was looking really confused. "They didn't know what it was but the could describe it pretty well.", Zell said. "It made a great leap almost reaching the middle of the island from the opposite coast. They could see two figures next to him when Griever disappeared.", he added. "What about the SeeDs? What are they going to do?", Quistis asked. "They are heading for Deling City. Actually we this is our destination.", Zell replied. "Wait a second. Odine, what are you doing here?", Squall asked. "For the usual gadget of victory.", he replied laughing. "I mean, I have an idea on how to help you achieve victory.", he explained. "Let's go to the office.", Quistis suggested. "Right", Zell said. Everyone got out of the Infirmary. "Stay here my love. Take this day off as well.", Squall said to Rinoa. "But i'm fine.", she replied. "Just do this for me. Just for today stay here.", he said almost begging her. "Okay my love. Go catch up with them.", Rinoa said smiling. Squall gave her a quick kiss and left.

Everyone except Rinoa gathered at the Office once again. "Let's go straight to the point. Let's not waste time.", Odine said and everyone turned facing him. "So, I have some blueprints at my office. Some nice blueprints that give the features of a machine I've been researching. I am a bit afraid to use it, that's why I stopped it's research some years ago. It is risky cause first of all, it uses a draw point at it's maximum. It uses it as fuel at a point of making it disappear. I've read in some books that ancient magicians could use a spell that could vanish all monsters in a certain range from the caster. That's what this machine is doing. I mean, that's what I want it to do. That's the second and main reason of calling it 'risky'.", Odine said. "We can take the risk. I think it would be really useful and probably it will surprise Orion which is as he says an ancient mage or something like that.", he added. "Let's just do this. We don't have a lot of time. We should attack fast.", Irvine said. "But the SeeDs...", Quistis tried to say and she was interrupted by Squall. "SeeDs will have a lot of time to rest as we move to the Island. We won't go straight from the ocean. We should take the long route so Odine has the time to build that machine.", Squall said. "And we should treat it as our last resort as it is risky.", he added. "It sounds like a plan to me", Cid said. Everyone agreed. "Let's head to Deling as Quistis suggested previously.", Edea said. "Before we go.", Odine said interrupting. "we need to get some stuff from Easthar. Materials and stuff like that.", he said. "Okay, take whatever you need.", Cid said. "Where is Laguna?", Odine asked. No one answered. "No one knows?", he asked again. Everyone lifted their shoulders. "You know he hates cellphones.", Squall said. "I'll go find him.", Odine said as he was leaving the office.

"Let's try this out.", Ultimecia said while casting a spell. There was formed a black formation of rocks and dirt. "Are you sure this worked out?", Orion asked. Ultimecia nailed him with her gaze. "I need some of the power you absorbed.", she said. "Okay. How am I goin t...", he tried to finish but Ultimecia interrupted him by kissing him. He got back. "What are you doing?", Orion said surprised. "That's the way of sharing the power within.", Ultimecia said. "But it needs both of us to want share powers.", she added. Orion nodded and kissed her. After their kiss Ultimecia tried again with the spell. This time the black formation turned into a some kind of castle. "Now that's more like my time.", Orion said. "It's just on the outside. Inside there are only two rooms. I warn you. In any case we must not go inside the first chamber. It is trapped by infinite loop magic. We will go at the second room and wait there.", Ultimecia said. "You think they'll come?", Orion asked. "Didn't you see the two SeeDs when we first came here?", she asked in reply. "There was people around?", Orion asked. Ultimecia sighed. "Just forger about it. They are gonna come. Don't worry. They always do.", she replied.

"Where to find that old fool now?", Odine whispered to himself while he was walking at center of Esthar. He walked a lot in the crowd to see if he was blended with it. 'Oh, I know!', he thought. Soon he was outside the Presidential Residence. 'He'll probably let me use the city announcer.', he thought. The guards allowed him inside. "What you want Odine?", the President asked. "You are too tough on me, aren't you?", Odine complained. "Just say what you want.", the President said. "I want a favor.", Odine said. "I know that. What is it?", the President said. "I want you to ask for Laguna Loire in your office from the city announcer.", Odine said. "And why should I do that?", he asked. "Just do it. Please, I can't find him but he is in town for sure.", Odine replied. The President was skeptical. "I have a plan on how to defeat Ultimecia and Orion.", Odine said. "I don't think I care at the moment about that. They are off my territory.", the President replied. "That's what I want Laguna sir.", Odine said. The President gazed for a bit in Odine's eyes. Then he went close to a microphone and called for Laguna. "Thanks a lot sir. I'm gonna wait for him outside.", Odine said and tried to go. "I hope he will convince me about this plan of yours.", the President said as Odine was going out. 'I hope he gets here fast.', Odine thought.

"Back my love!", Squall said while entering the Infirmary. But Rinoa wasn't there. Squall panicked for a second. "Squall?", Dr. Kodowaki said as he saw him looking around socked. "Where is Rinoa?", he asked touching her shoulders. "You got to tell me doctor!", he added. "Hey hey hey. Take it easy Squall. She was fine so I couldn't keep her here. She said she was hungry though.", she said. Squall didn't even answer to that, just rushed out of the door heading for the Cafeteria. When he got there he saw Zell and Rinoa eating hot dogs. "You wanna kill me or something?", Squall asked as soon as he got a sit next to them. "Why you say that my love?", Rinoa asked with full mouth. Squall start laughing. "It sounds funny when you eat and say it.", he said while he laughed. "And why so many hot dogs here? Is this some kind of competition?", he added. "Actually yes. She said she was really hungry so I challenged her in a hot dog contest.", Zell said with full mouth as well. "Yeah nice idea.", Squall said ironically. Rinoa laughed. Squall tried to get a hot dog for him self from the table but Rinoa slapped his hand. "What? Why did you do that?", Squall asked. "Go get yours.", Rinoa said. "This is a contest man!", Zell added without lifting his head off the table. "You weirdos. I'm gonna go to our room and rest.", Squall said a bit angry and left the table.

"Oh Laguna! You came!", Odine said as soon as he saw him closing by. "Wait. Who wants me? You or the President?", Laguna asked. "Well...", Odine replied looking away. "I need a favor.", he added. Laguna was a bit disturbed by what he heard. "What is it this time Odine?", he replied staring at Odine. "Have I asked a lot of favors from you in the past?", Odine asked also staring at Laguna. "Not a lot, but some of them could be called "Suicide Missions"!", Laguna replied. "Don't worry about this one. I just want you to convince the president to give us some of the resources we need for our plan.", Odine said a bit quickly making Laguna's mind fill with questions. "Oh oh oh", Laguna said gesturing him to slow down. "What plan? Why resources?", Laguna asked. "We made a plan while we were in the Garden. The plan includes a strange machine that I will make and I need resources that Esthar doesn't need them at the time. The Garden is leaving as soon as we get that stuff I need. That's why I want you to make the stubborn president give them to us.", Odine said leaning forward. Laguna nodded and proceeded to the Presidential Palace. After a while Laguna came out in a rush. "Odine, can you make a list of things you need?", Laguna asked before even closing by. "Yes I can!", he replied a bit loudly. "Hurry up and do it then!", Laguna said exciting. Odine took a piece of paper from his back pocket and a pen from his front pocket. "Turn your back and knee", Odine instructed Laguna. He did as Odine wanted and Odine placed the paper on Laguna's back. "Let's see...", he said and started writing quickly. Laguna was giggling. "What's up with the giggle, Laguna?", Odine said as he was done writing. "You were tickling me!", Laguna replied smiling. "Whatever, take this paper and go!", Odine said waving his head. "Right! Thanks!", Laguna said and got back inside Presidential Palace. Again, after a while he came out. "So?", Odine rushed close to him and asked. "He will give us what you need, b...", Laguna tried to say and he was interrupted. "Yes! I knew you could make it!", Odine said a bit loudly from his excitement. "Yeah, but!", Laguna said. "Some of the stuff you asked for are running low on amounts. So he will contact with us when he can send a Ragnarok to our location with the all the stuff you need.", Laguna said. "As soon as he agreed to help us, your mission was a success. Well done Laguna Loir!", Odine said, laughing a bit. "Yeah, whatever. Let's leave Esthar. I want something more greeny for a place.", Laguna said while he started walking away from the Palace. "Oh! We are heading to Deling with the Garden.", Odine said. "We?", Laguna asked and turned to face Odine. "Yeah! I will build a machine and I would love your help along with Kiros and Ward.", he said. Laguna was a bit skeptical. "What's wrong?", Odine said getting in his way. "I don't know if the guys want to get involved in this war. I don't know if I want them to get involved in this war.", Laguna said facing the ground. Odine get off Laguna's way and both resumed walking to the elevators. When the reached the elevators Odine pressed the airfield button. "I get what you mean. For me, it's okay if you decide not to come. I am sure there will be many SeeDs or even pupils of the Garden that would love to help me out.", Odine said. "I'll stay here to make sure that the President will keep his promise. As for the war you are getting into, I can't assure you we will join it. I hope to see you later my friend.", Laguna said. Odine nodded and they did a handshake.

The sound of the intercom of the Garden could be heard. "Excuse me everyone, we are about to leave Esthar Continent and head for Deling City. Everyone should be inside the Garden at all times. Squall Leonheart, we need you at the bridge.", Xu's voice could be heard. After a while, Squall appeared in the office, heading for the bridge. "Squall!", Odine said in surprise. Squall was surprised as well and made a step back. Odine laughed. "Sorry for that", he said. "We are ready for departure, sir.", Nida was heard from above. "Stop with this formality!", Squall said a bit loudly. "What's wrong?", Zell said as he entered the office. "Did you call me up here just to tell me we are about to leave?", Squall said a bit angrily. "What's wrong Squall?", Odine got close to him. "Nothing!", Squall said almost shouting. "Your father won't come with us. He will stay here and wait for the Ragnarok that will bring our stuff to leave. Then we may see him, we may not.", Odine said. "Oh...", Squall said and his face changed from angry to worried. "Where is Rinoa, Zell?", he asked as he rushed to the door. "She was coming to you.", Zell said. "What's wrong with him?", Quistis asked. "I think I know. We did some kind of contest with Rinoa. A hot dog eating contest, which I lost. Weird, huh?", Zell said while he took a shit. "We were a bit harsh on him and I think that's why he was angry.", Zell said. Quistis tried to speak but the Garden shaked a bit hard. "What's wrong Nida?", Cid yelled at the bridge. "Nothing much. We are free to leave now.", Nida yelled back down.

The Garden was now on the way to Deling City, closing up to a great battle.


	6. Chapter 6

Back to the Start (VI)

"Hey Odine!", Squall yelled at Odine when he saw him coming out of the elevator. Odine was really surprised and his look was suggesting the same. Squall rushed close to him. "What's wrong Squall?", Odine tried to say but Squall took his arm and made Odine follow him to the Ball. "What's wrong Squall? Why did you force me to come here?", Odine said as he managed to take his arm free. "Sorry for that but I need to ask you a favor.", Squall said looking a bit worried at Odine's arm. "What kind of favor?", Odine said getting all serious. "Well first of all, this place will be your lab.", Squall said. Odine took a look walking a bit around in the room. "It's perfect!", Odine said suddenly trying to scare Squall. "Okay.", Squall said all calm and relaxed. "Now about the favor.", Odine said moving closer to Squall. "When we fought Ultimecia, I took a quick look on my necklace and then on Rinoa's neck. My "Artifacts", I mean my ring and necklace, were glowing a strange green essence.", Squall said almost whispering. "Why are you saying all this quietly?", Odine aksed. "Because I think it's some kind of key to victory.", Squall said again almost whispering. "So what about the favor?", Odine whispered. "I want you to do your research stuff on them.", Squall whispered. "I need your items then.", Odine said. Squall got his hand in his pocket and then took it out with his items in his grasp. "But!", Squall said before giving them. "I want you to keep it secret. No one will know about this, just you and me. Okay?", Squall said as he placed his items on Odine's hands. Odine nodded. "Let's get out of here now.", Squall said laughing. "You go, I need to take a better look of the place. I want to imagine of how the equipment should be placed in here", Odine said. "Okay! You've got all the journey to Deling to think about it.", Squall replied laughing. Odine laughed as well.

Squall got slowly back to his room, like he didn't want to interrupt his thoughts by the voices of Rinoa and anyone else that could happen to be at their room. Kind of selfish, but he was bothered thinking to plan the time they have till they end up fighting. "The good news is that we know where they are.", Squall said talking to himself. A passing SeeD looked at him with a weird look on his face. 'Let's see', he thought and kept on thinking and not talking to himself. At some point he got in front of his room door. He didn't really knock or used his keys. He just stood in front of it thinking. Suddenly the door opned. "Wow!", Selphie said surprised. "Where you looking at the door?", she added giggling. Squall smiled and stepped aside so she can leave the room. Rinoa kept looking at the entrance without knowing who's there. Then she saw Squall coming in. "Hi my love. I wanted to ask you something.", Rinoa said while she got close enough to hug him. "What is it my love?", Squall asked and hugged her. "Why you wanted my necklace earlier?", she asked back. "Nothing much, I just want to test something.", Squall replied smiling. "It's for everyone's sake.", he added. "Okayyyy", Rinoa said and had a weird look on her face. "Don't do that face! Just trust me. You are going to have your necklace back in a some days. Now I want to talk to you about something else.", Squall said smiling at her. "What is it my love?", she asked. "I was thinking of ways to use the time we have when we are at Deling City.", he said. "And?", Rinoa asked again. "I was thinking that we can take some kind of vacation. What I mean is that SeeDs are already willing to help out Odine. I am sure my father will come to help, cause he is my father and I am as stubborn as he is! So I was thinking that we could pay a visit to your father and stay at the mansion for a few days, if he is available and willing to have us there of course.", he said. "What a great idea!", Rinoa said with a huge smile. "I will call him right now to arrange things!", she said excited. "We could surprise him, but he may be away or having something important to do.", Squall said smiling at the excited Rinoa. "We will try to surprise him and if he is busy or away it's ok!", she said with a happy tone in her voice. "I was also thinking that this "vacation" thing would help the guys as well.", Squall said. "Great! As soon as we land at Deling we are off our way to the mansion!", Rinoa said and jumped onto Squall.

The sound of the intercom call could be heard around the Garden. "I would love to have your attention for a while. We just arrived at Deling City. We were informed that a Ragnarok is about to arrive at Deling City in a while. I would like to thank you for your helping spirit. The volunteers sheet is full. Just follow the instruction that Dr. Odine gives you all will be done quicker that we expected. Now about the exit allowance. We would like to have everyone SeeD and every candidate in the Garden. You can practice and relax in here. Thanks.", Quistis said near the mic. "A ragnarok is approaching!", Nida kind of yelled from the bridge. Quistis pressed the intercom button once again. "A ragnarok just arrived. We don't know if they need any help to carry whatever they brought to us, so be on stand-by. Team one be ready at the front gate. If you still don't know at what team of volunteers you are, there is a full list at the Dome entrance. Thank you.", Quistis said. "Let's go help them out ourselves.", Zell said. "The only help I need from you, is only this time. Carry anything if they need you to and then go have some fun.", Odine said smiling. Everyone nodded and moved to the elevator.

Once they got out of the Garden, there was a car and the Ragnarok. "Is that the Garden's car?", Irvine asked. "The Garden is lending us one of it's cars.", Quistis replied. "Nice!", Irvine said excited. The Ragnarok's gate opened slowly. "I told you he would come", Squall said to Rinoa. It was Laguna coming out of the Ragnarok. "What's up guys?", he yelled from a distance. Everyone smiled at him. "Do you need any help carrying stuff over there?", Squalled yelled back at him. "Actually, yes!", Laguna said as he had come closer. "Okay.", Squall said and turned to Quistis. She nodded and turned back to the Garden. "Where is she going?", Laguna asked. "Just wait a second.", Squall said. After a while, a lot of students and SeeDs came out the front gate. "Wow! That's a lot of help!", Laguna said smiling. "That's only team one.", Zell said. "How many teams are there?", Laguna asked. "Five actually.", Squall said. "That's a tone of help!", Laguna said excited. "Are you gonna stay?", Squall asked. "I was chatting with my friends, Kiros and Ward, and we realized that we are getting old but still capable of fighting. So, the three of us came here to help Odine with his research and help you at anything you want when it's time for the fight.", Laguna said. Squall nodded. "Thanks dad.", he said and hugged him. "The gang of three are all here?", Selphie asked excited. "Yeah we are!", Laguna replied smiling at her. "So excited!", Selphie said giggling. Everyone looked at her with a confusing look. "What?", Selphie asked. Everyone laughed. "Okay, we should better get going guys.", Squall said to his friends. They nodded. "Going where?", Laguna asked. "The help around the Garden is more than we expected, so we are going to pay a visit and stay for some days at the mansion.", Squall replied smiling. "Well you could pay a visit at your mother's grave. You never gone there, didn't you?", Laguna whispered at Squall's ear. "I'll see what I can do.", Squall replied. "Have a safe trip to Deling, my friends.", Laguna said and waved as they got in the car. "Anything you need, just call me.", Squall yelled. Laguna nodded. Everyone waved at him as Irvine drove away from the Garden.

"How about knocking that door Rinoa?", Selphie said from the back of the row as the entrance bridge was a bit thin. "Yeah, yeah.", Rinoa said and knocked. "Are you okay my love?", Squall whispered at her ear while holding her hand. "Just a bit nervous. There has been a lot of time since I last saw my father.", she replied. "Don't worry. Everything will be fine. I am sure he is waiting for the moment that his daughter is coming back to his arms.", Squall said. Rinoa smiled at him. "What are you guys whispering over there?", Irvine asked as he was full of curiosity. Selphie punched his shoulder. "Persona stuff, dude.", she said. "Is punching a way of showing that you love me?", Irvine asked trying to make a joke. Selphie blushed. Quistis got Irvine's attention and waved her finger. "I was joking! What?", Irvine said. Selphie turned her back to him, facing the opposite way from the mansion. "I am sorry Selphie. I don't know what's wrong but I am sorry.", Irvine said touching her shoulder. "Okay. Just turn around.", Selphie said without facing him. Irvine did so and at the same moment the door opened. Rinoa was shocked. Exactly the same happened to her father, General Caraway. "Go hug him.", Squall whispered. Rinoa took a leap and fall into her father's arms. "Hi dad.", she whispered at him. "Welcome back my little girl.", he whispered back. Squall turned around and smiled at his friends. They smiled back. "Look how much you've grown up.", Caraway said. "I am sorry I had that attitude.", Rinoa started saying but she was interrupted by her father. "I am sorry that I allowed you to built an attitude like that. It was my fault I was always away. But I am really happy that you came back to me again.", he said. Rinoa had tears on her eyes. "I am so happy that I am back.", Rinoa said. Squall closed the door and let everyone including himself outside the mansion. "Who where these people? They remind me of something but I am not completely sure.", Caraway said. "Remember when five SeeDs came here to execute Edea?", Rinoa asked. "Yeah I do. Are these the same SeeDs?", Caraway asked back. "Well, they are not SeeDs anymore. Squall got leader of the Garden. He actually quit some time ago in order to marry me. But there was an incident that made all of them to go back to the Garden and actually save me once again. But I am a part of their group right now.", Rinoa explained excited. "Well, I did hear everything about you. How you became the Sorceress and that you went into the future to fight the great sorceress and that she is back. I guess you are at Deling with the Garden and you are going to fight them again.", her father said. "Well, yeah. We would love to stay here for some days, if you are okay with it.", Rinoa said. "Open the door to your friends and boyfriend.", Caraway suggested and smiled. Rinoa smiled and opened the door. Everyone outside smiled at her. "Come inside guys.", she said. They nodded. "That is Squall. I already told you about him.", Rinoa said as Squall got inside. "Hello General. Thanks for your hospitality.", Squall said and tried to shake his hand. "I am not a General anymore. You can call me Caraway or dad.", he said and hugged him. Rinoa was surprised but happy. "Thanks dad.", Squall said. "This is Zell.", Rinoa said and she was interrupted once again by her father. "I think I remember their names.", he said. "You are Quistis.", he said going next to Quistis. Quistis nodded in agreement and they shook hands. "You are the sharpshooter! Irvine Kineas.", he said as he shook hands with him. "Correct", Irvine said smiling. "You must be Selphie.", he said and shook hands with her as well. Selphie smiled. "Everyone. Please make yourself comfortable. Treat the mansion like your home. Some guide. Upstairs. Only bedrooms and a bathroom. Downstairs, where we are now. Everything else, including a bedroom for me and a bathroom.", he said pointing in different directions. "Thanks for your hospitality Mr. Caraway.", everyone said with one voice. "Just call me Caraway.", he said laughing.

As the night was falling over Deling City, Selphie was upstairs looking outside a window. She was in the office where she was briefed for her first important mission. Executing the Sorceress. The view outside the specific window was great. She could she the huge gate where the sorceress was trapped and the huge park with all that grass. Then a great idea came into her mind. She rushed down the stairs, almost falling over. "Be careful Selphie.", Squall said. "That was scary!", Selphie said laughing. "I have an idea guys.", she said and everyone turned to watch her. "It's a great night and the weather is perfect tonight. How about going over to the bar where we saw Laguna in our dreams and then to this prefect park near the mansion?", she asked. "We are kind of tired Selphie. We are staying here for some days. We can go tomorrow.", Irvine said and everyone agreed. "Oh, come on! It will be great tonight.", Selphie tried to motivate them. "We are growing old and you do what old people do!", Selphie said. "No offense Caraway.", she apologized to Caraway. "Sorry Selphie. Not in the mood tonight.", Squall said. "Fine! I will still go.", Selphie said and opened the door. She waited for a while for them to respond, but nothing. She gave them an angry look and closed the door behind her. She moved over the bridge and walked through the park. She quickly reached the hotel where Julia used to sing and Laguna stared at her. She got inside and headed downstairs. She was really excited that she finally went over there. But then she got disappointed cause the bar was changed. It was more modern now and everything was rearranged. "Can I help you?", the old bartender asked when he saw her with that disappointed look on her face. "Actually, you can. How long have you been working here?", Selphie asked while she took a sit close to the bartender. "I work here from the moment the hotel opened.", he replied. "Then you must know Julia Heartily and Laguna Loire.", Selphie said excited. "Well, you are right. I do know them.", he said and noticed that Selphie's eyes got brighter. "That's great news!", she said smiling really wide. "You know him?", he asked. "Yes I do! I was actually talking to him this morning!", she replied. "I haven't heard of him since the night were I saw him talking to Julia.", he said. "Can you tell me about his life? If it's not a trouble for you.", he asked. "Don't worry. That's actually the reason I came here. To see the place my hero had his strong emotionally moments.", Selphie said. The bartender smiled. "Let's see. Where should I start with his life. Oh! I know!", Selphie said. She stayed there for a lot of hours discussing about Laguna's life. She learned some stuff she didn't know about him and shared others that she and her friends only knew. Back at the mansion, Irvine was getting worried. "Why isn't she back yet?", he asked. "Why you worry so much?", Quistis asked. "I just do! She left with this angry look that I can't get out of my head.", Irvine replied. "Go find her then.", Squall suggested. "I will!", Irvine said and rushed out of the mansion. "What is wrong with him?", Zell said. "It's obvious Zell.", Rinoa said. "Didn't you see Selphie blush when he said something about the L word?", she asked. "I did. So?", Zell asked back. "They are in love. I just hope he know what he is doing and not hurt her.", Squall replied. "We'll see.", Quistis said.

Irvine had just arrived the same hotel Selphie arrived some hours ago. He rushed in and downstairs. He only saw a bartender and some couples hugging at their tables. "Excuse me.", Irvine said at the bartender. "How can I help you young man?", he replied. "Have you seen a charming girl with green eyes? Her name is Selphie.", Irvine asked. "Actually I did! She just left.", the bartender replied. "Thanks a lot", Irvine said and rushed back upstairs and out of the hotel. 'Where can she be now?', he thought. 'And why am I caring for her so much?', he asked himself. 'It can't be love. I am never in love.', he thought and walked down the street. The town noises didn't really allowed him to think so he went to this park Selphie mentioned earlier. When he got there, he found a peaceful environment. There were a lot of people around, but there was a nice silence ruling the place. He found a nice spot and took a sit on the grass. "The stars tonight are perfect.", he said in a quite voice so that no one will hear him. "I agree.", another voice said. It was a familiar voice to him. "Selphie?", he asked and turned around to see. Selphie smiled at him and took a sit next to him. "When did you come here?", they both asked and then laughed. "Shhh", he did. "Right.", she said and turned down the volume of her voice. "I just got here and saw you taking a sit over here.", she said. "Oh. I went over the hotel bar to find you but the bartender said that you had just left.", he said and smiled. "Oh. Weren't you tired enough to go and sleep?", she asked. "Sorry for that. I couldn't get your angry look off my mind and I really wanted to apologize.", he said and looked away. "Don't worry silly. I wasn't that mad. I just overreact sometimes.", she said smiling. Irvine looked back at her and smiled. There was an uncomfortable silence for some time. "Aren't the starts really beautiful tonight?", Selphie asked. "Yeah, but not compared to you.", Irvine replied. Selphie blushed and looked away. No one talked again for a while. "I just felt like saying it. And I mean it.", Irvine said. "Thanks a lot.", Selphie said and looked at him. "I have something to say", she said and was interrupted but Irvine. "but you are afraid to say it, right?", he asked. "Yeah.", Selphie replied and looked down to the grass. "I can thought.", Irvine said. "What do you mean?", Selphie asked. "I love you Selphie. I really do. That's why I came over to the bar and looked for you.", Irvine said. Selphie's heart was beating so fast, she thought it was going to explode. "Come on, say something!", Irvine said worried. "Sorry, my love.", Selphie said and smiled. "What did you say?", Irvine asked smiling. "You head me right.", Selphie said staring in his eyes smiling. "I like of how it sounds.", Irvine said and tried to hug her. "Okay then. My love!", she said and kissed him.


	7. Chapter 7

Back to the Start (VII)

"Why do you need shields for this castle? Don't you want them to go into the first chamber?", Orion said full of curiosity. "If they find it too easy to get in there, they will understand that we want them to get in there. That's why I want to make it a bit difficult for them to come.", Ultimecia said and got ready to cast the spell. "I want you to go out there and try to hit the wall.", Ultimecia said and pointed outside of the castle. Orion nodded and tried to leave. "Again! Don't go into the first chamber. I won't break the spell for you.", Ultimecia warned him. "Don't worry.", Orion said and disappeared. Ultimecia concetrated and casted a spell. She was surrounded by darkness and her body had a green glow. Suddenly she felt a short of pain, like someone was punching her hard. 'It works!', she thought. After that, Orion came back in the room. "So, it worked, right?", he asked. Ultimecia nodded smiling. "They are so gonna fall in your trap!", Orion said laughing evilly. Ultimecia joined him and laughed as well. "Did you bring the monsters inside?", Ultimecia asked. "You never told me I had to gather monsters.", Orion said looking at her. 'She is gonna blame me again for not hearing it...', Orion thought. "You are right. I forgot about it.", Ultimecia said. 'Wow!', Orion thought and looked at her amazed. "We'll both do it. I'll go at the western part and you at the eastern part of the island.", she added. "Alright!", Orion replied and they both gone to their ways.

The sun was rising at Deling City and that made Irvine open his eyes. "Good morning my love.", he said as he saw Selphie sleeping in his arms. "Good morning to you too but isn't it a bit early?", she said without opening her eyes. "Wait. Something is wrong.", he said and looked around. Then he laughed so hard that got Selphie annoyed and she stood up really fast. "What's so funny?", she said staring at him. "Take a look around.", Irvine said still laughing hard. Selphie did so and then joined his laughter. They fall asleep at the park, where they stood looking at the stars. "How did that happen?", Selphie wondered when they both stopped laughing. "It's pretty easy. Let me explain. You lay down and close your eyes. If you are tired you sleep pretty easy.", Irvine replied with a serious tone in his voice and look on his face. "Yeah I now that you meany.", she said and punched his shoulder. "Oh. That's how you want to play?", Irvine said and grabbed her from her arms. Then threw her down and got on top of her. Then he start kissing her. Shelphie didn't resist at all. After a while he stopped. "Let's go back to the mansion. They must be worried.", Selphie said. Irvine nodded and got off her. He took her hand and helped her stand up. The park was really close to the mansion, so they didn't have to walk for a long time. After a while, they were there knocking the door. Quistis opened the door and was relieved to see they were both alright. "What took you so long to get here?", she asked as they both came inside. "Nothing much. We just fall asleep at the park.", Irvine said and looked at Selphie. She was giggling. "You should be more careful guys.", Squall said laughing a bit. Irvine was giggling as well. "Let's go for breakfast. My father made a full breakfast today.", Rinoa said. "Where is he? We have to thank him.", Selphie asked. "He is in his office. We will thank him later when he comes down. I wouldn't like to interrupt him from anything.", Rinoa replied. "You are right.", Selphie said smiling. "Let's just eat people!", Zell said as he had to wait all this time for Selphie and Irvine to return. Everyone laughed and moved in the kitchen. "Why were you at the park?", Zell asked. "Well I wanted a nice place to see the stars.", Selphie said. "I wanted a quite place.", Irvine replied. "And you found each other there?", Quistis asked. "Yep.", they both said and looked at each other smiling. "Oh oh oh.", Rinoa said. "Something happened in that park.", she added. "What do you mean?", Irvine asked. "Look at your faces when you look at each other. They light up.", Rinoa replied smiling. "Well... There might be something that happened back there.", Selphie said. "Finally!", Rinoa said relieved. "What?", Irvine asked. "Don't listen to her. Okay! We both admitted that we are in love.", Selphie said and got red. Irvine hugged her. Everyone was smiling. "That's some great news!", Zell said. "Yeah, now it's your turn and Quisti's turn to find someone.", Rinoa said staring at them. "What about the librarian Zell?", Squall asked. "Just forget about it. I am not doing anything.", Zell said. "But..", Irvine tried to say and he was interrupted. "Just let it go. I don't feel alright talking about this.", Zell said with an angry way. "Did anything happen?", Rinoa asked. Zell stood up and left the kitchen. "What's wrong with him?", Squall asked. They heard the door closing. "I think I know what happened.", Quistis said. "You do?", Rinoa asked. "Once I found him drunk walking around the Garden. He told me everything.", Quistis replied. "Tell us!", Selphie said eagerly. "Alright, alright. He was trying to find out a way of getting around this girl, the librarian with the pigtail. At the graduation party we had after Squal and Rinoa left, Zell was there, because we were at Balamb at that moment. There, he was really decided to go and talk to her. Tell her his emotions for her. He looked for her all over the Garden and he found her at the Secret place where students go and stay in quiet, admiring the view. I am talking about the secret place at the Training Garden. There she wasn't alone. Zell found her kissing another guy. He instantly turned around and came back to the ball. I saw him really skeptical. Next time I saw him, was wondering around, drunk.", Quistis said. "Poor Zell.", Selphie said. "Where is he going now?", Rinoa wondered. "Probably the Garden. Work makes him not think of anything else. I am sure he will be back at meal time.", Quistis replied. Rinoa nodded. "I think I'll go check he is there.", she added. "Thanks.", Squall said. Quistis smiled and moved out of the kitchen. "Okay!", Selphie said. "We cheer up now! We will help Zell. But for now let's go have some coffee at the City Center.", Selphie said. "Alright. Go get changed then.", Rinoa said. Everyone nodded and moved out of the kitchen.

"What are they doing up there?", Rinoa asked Squall who was just coming down the staircase. Squall smiled. "Dirty stuff.", he replied. "What?", Rinoa asked. "They just got together. I am sure they needed this.", Squall said. "What are you talking about.", Rinoa asked as she didn't understand a single thing. Squall sighed. "They are doing the process that creates babies. But in the end they won't have a baby cause they are using protection.", Squall said like he was speaking to a kid. "Oh.", Rinoa said. "I am not a retard or something.", she added. "Yeah, but you couldn't get me earlier.", Squall said. "And as I recall, there been a long time since we did they thing they do.", he added. "Oh, stop it!", Rinoa giving him a mean look. "What?", he asked. "I'll tell you at the cafe. Let's go now.", Rinoa said and walked to the door.

At the cafe, Rinoa took Squall's hand. "What's wrong my love?", he asked. "Nothing is wrong. I just have some news for you.", Rinoa said. Squall stared in her eyes, waiting to hear what she had to say. "I am waiting for your baby.", she said and smiled. He smiled really wide back at her. "That's a huge smile. There's been a long time since I last saw that.", Rinoa said giggling. Squall laughed. "What are your feeling my love?", Rinoa asked. "This is just great. I can say that I have been waiting for this. I mean, I wanted to hear this.", Squall said smiling. "That's just amazing. So, we are both ready for it.", Rinoa said. Squall nodded and kissed her. "Go get a room guys.", Selphie said as she took a sit at their table. "Look who's talking about rooms.", Rinoa said laughing. Selphie laughed as well. "What happened Squall?", Irvine asked. "What do you mean?", he asked in reply. "You have this wide smile on your face.", Irvine said. "Oh that.", Squall said. Rinoa giggled. "You told him?", Selphie asked Rinoa. Squall immediately turned an looked at Selphie without the wide smile. "You knew?", Squalled asked. "Of course I did! I am her girl friend. Quistis and I knew about it.", Selphie said. "Well, you have a point there.", Squall said and looked at the table. Rinoa laughed. "What did Selphie knew and you just found out, Squall?", Irvine asked again. "Rinoa is pregnant.", he replied and smiled widely again. "Wow!", Irvine said amazed. "Well done, guys.", he added and smiled. Rinoa and Squall smiled at him.

Back at the Garden, Laguna saw Quistis rushing into the Ball which was now Odine's Lab. "What are you doing here Quistis?", he said while moved close to her. "Looking for Zell. Have you seen him?", Quistis asked and took a deep breath. "Yeah, he was around here, helping us out. I thought you were on vacation or something.", Laguna said. "Well, we are. We wanted him to open up his heart and talk to us about a girl, but he left the mansion and I assumed he was here.", Quistis said looking around. Laguna nodded. "I've sent him to Cid. But I better go myself to Cid. So, I will go up there and tell Zell to come down here. Wait for him here.", he said. "Thank you Laguna.", Quistis said and smiled. Laguna smiled back and slowly walked out of the Lab. He moved to the elevator and then up to the Office. He knocked the door and then opened it. "Hey, Laguna.", Cid said at the moment he saw Laguna. Laguna smiled. "Zell, can you go to the Lab? They want you down there.", Laguna said. "But you sent me here.", Zell said and was interrupted. "It was my fault. I am sorry son.", Laguna said. Zell nodded and left the room. "Zell said that you wanted to ask me something and that I should come find you.", Laguna said. "Well, I said that to him. But Odine helped me.", Laguna said. "What was it?", Cid asked as he took a sit. "I was thinking. Ultimecia was once into Rinoa. Can she do it again now?", Laguna said as he took a sit as well. "But, Rinoa is no more a Sorceress, right?", Cid asked. "Well I don't know. Odine says that one Sorceress can be at the time. And from the time that Ultimecia is here and we saw that she has the powers of a Sorceress, neither Rinoa, nor Edea, nor Adel can be a sorceress at this time.", Laguna said. "Well it makes kind of a sense. I know what we can do.", Cid said smiling. "What my friend?", Laguna asked. "Well, a Sorceress has the memories of the previous one. We can ask Rinoa and tell us if she still has any memories from Edea, or Adel.", Cid said. "I think I will go right now.", Laguna said. Cid nodded. "I'll tell you the outcome when I'm back.", Laguna said and got out of the room.

At the Mansion, Squall heard some knocking on the door. He moved next to the door and opened it. "Father!", he said. Laguna smiled at Squall. Squall hugged his father. "What brings you here?", Squall asked. "Well I wanted to talk to you and Rinoa privately if you don't mind.", Laguna said. Squall nodded. "Let's go at General's office.", Squall said. "Well, everyone is away but let's go up there. The place inspires you to talk.", he added smiling. Laguna smiled back. "Rinoa where are you? My father want to see us both.", Squall kind of yelled in the Mansion. Suddenly Rinoa appeared from downstairs. "What were you doing down there?", Squall asked. "Nothing much. Just remembering my early years.", Rinoa smiled. "How are you Laguna?", she asked. Laguna smiled. "We need to talk guys.", he said again. "Ok. Let's go up there.", Rinoa said.

At the office everyone took a sit. "What is that you wanted to tell us?", Squall asked. "Well. I was thinking back at the Garden. Is it possible for Ultimecia to use Rinoa again? While I was thinking that, Odine suggested that one and only one Sorceress can be alive at a single time. That means that Rinoa isn't a Sorceress any more. Well, that's what we knew already, right?", Laguna asked. They both nodded in agreement. "Then Cid said that a Sorceress keeps the memories of the previous Sorceress and then suggested to come and ask you, Rinoa, if you still got any memories left.", Laguna said. "Well, I do.", Rinoa said. Laguna was skeptical once again. "I also still have the powers to use Sorceress Magic.", she added. "That can be bad.", Laguna said. Squall was getting more and more nervous and worried about Rinoa. "I believe that two Sorceress can exist. I mean, I am from this time and she isn't from this time. She is from the future. As a Sorceress, she could access other Sorceresses consciousness through the Ellone. Now she does not have Ellone nor the machine that gives her Ellone's powers. I think my theory is right.", she said. "Anyways I am really worried now.", Squall said. "Oh, come on. She can do anything to me.", Rinoa said taking Squall's hand. Squall moved his head to face his hand. "I will go and...", Squall tried to say and he was interrupted by a phone call. He answered it. "Squall, you have to come down here quickly. I made some discoveries about your artifacts.", Odine said through the phone. "Okay Odine, I'll be right there.", Squall said and closed his phone. "What happened?", Rinoa asked. "It was Odine. He wants me at the Garden for something I asked him for. I will also ask him about the Sorceress stuff.", Squall said. "Wait for my phone call.", he added and tried to leave the room. "Son! Wait for me. I need to go to the Garden as well.", Laguna said. Squall nodded and both rushed out of the room. Rinoa was left alone in the whole Mansion. 'I hope my theory is right. I don't want Squall's baby hurt.', she thought and cried.


	8. Chapter 8

Back to the Start (VIII)

"So?", Squall asked shaking Odine's body from his arms. "Can Rinoa's theory be correct?", he added. "Well, Rinoa may got a point with the Ellone part. But I don't know. But I believe that she will be okay.", Odine said and smiled. Squall's face had a sign of relief. "Now!", Odine said. "Right! About your phone call.", Squall said and Odine grabbed his hand. "Follow me.", he said and start walking fast. 'Let's see what he found.', Squall thought. At the Ball, Odine made a certain place to be something like his office, where he could relax or do research on his own. Squall was impressed of the progress that the pupils and SeeDs did with that machine. It was almost done. "You have great help.", Squall said when he spotted Kiros and Ward. "Yes I do my friend. The Garden is amazing. You all do a great job with the lessons.", Odine replied. "Well, not me.", Squall said. "Trust me. You did a great job as a leader. Everyone wanted to be like you. And some still want to be like you.", Odine replied. Squall smiled. "Thanks Odine.", Squall replied. "Don't thank me yet.", Odine said and he closed a door behind him. "Take a sit please.", Odine said. Squall nodded and did what Odine asked him to do. "So!", Odine said. "I found out that your artifacts have protective and enhancing powers.", he said as he took a sit as well. "What do you mean?", Squall asked. "Rinoa is alive because of them. When Ultimecia hit her with her spell, the ring on her necklace protected her.", Odine explained. "Is that so?", Squall said. Odine nodded. "And when it glows?", Squall asked. "Oh! Right! Because Griever is the symbols on both your ring and necklace, when he is summoned, your artifacts stop protecting you.", Odine said. Squall nodded, as a sign of understanding. "Whoever gave these to you,", Odine said while giving Squall's necklace and Rinoa's neclace back to him, "must really love you.". Squall smiled. "I think I know who gave them to me. So, let me go thank him.", Squall said and stood up. Odine nodded as he opened the door for Squall to leave. "Thanks for everything Odine.", Squall said as he left. Odine smiled. Squall walked up to his dad, who was there helping Kiros carry a metal component. "Hey.", Squall said smiling. "Hi Squall!", Kiros said. "Let me help you with that.", Squall said and tried to help them both. "No no. Don't worry about it. We are almost there.", Laguna said and kept walking. When they placed this component near to the machine, they both turned to Squall. "What's up son?", Laguna asked smiling. "Can I talk to you for a sec?", Squall asked. "Do you mind if I walk a bit with my son Kiros?", Laguna asked. Kiros nodded. Laguna smiled and and left the Ball with Squall. "What's wrong?", he asked. "Nothing is wrong! I just wanted to thank you for giving me these.", Squall replied and showed Laguna his necklace and ring. "It's the first time in my life I see this jewelery.", Laguna said. "What?", Squall asked surprised. "Well, it's not the first time I see them, but I remember that you had them the first time I saw you.", Laguna replied. "You mean, when I was a baby?", Squall said. "Something like that. Ellone said that Raine gave these to you when I saw you for the first time.", Laguna said. "Oh.", Squall said and gone quiet. "Have you ever gone to her grave?", Laguna asked. "No.", Squall replied. "I think this is a good time, son.", Laguna suggested. Squall nodded in agreement. "Get in that car and drive to Winhill. Ellone would be really happy to see you.", Laguna smiled. "Thanks dad.", Squall said and hugged Laguna.

Rinoa heard her phone ringing at the living room of the Mansion. "Can someone answer it for me?", she yelled from downstairs. No one replied. 'Oh, man. I forgot I was alone here.', shethought. She rushed up the stairs and answered the phone. "This is Rinoa!", she said breathing fast. "Take it easy my love.", Squall said. Rinoa laughed. "Are you coming back?", Rinoa asked. "No. You are coming out of the town. Take bus 6 and take it all the way to the end of the city. I will wait there for you.", Squall said. "What? Why?", Rinoa asked. "I am going to Winhill and I want you to come with me.", Squall replied. "Winhill? What happened?", she asked. "I'll show you why, when you come here.", Squall said. "Fine! You need clothes?", she asked. "Don't take anything with you! Just bring yourself. And don't be late. I am going to leave you behind.", Squall said laughing and ended the call. Rinoa quickly changed some clothes and then rushed down the stairs. Took a paper in order to make a note to Selphie and Irvine and tell them that Squall got crazy. She laughed on her own while writing this. After a while she got to the door and opened it. Took the bus with the number six and waited for it to reach the end of the city. As soon as she got out of the bus, she saw Squall waving at her. She smiled and ran to him. She gave him a french kiss and smiled. "Look what I have here for you.", Squall said smiling as he show her her necklace. "Finally! You know I missed it.", she said smiling. "I know my love.", he said as he helped her wear it. "So, why are we going to Winhill?", Rinoa asked while holding her hair up. "Well. I haven't visited my mother and Sis for a long time. And I feel this is a good time. Okay done.", he replied. Rinoa turned to face him and nodded. "Let's go then! It's going to be dark in a while.", Rinoa said smiling. Squall smiled and they both got in the car. "Okay. Here we go.", Squall said and drove the car. "Did you talk about my theory to Odine?", Rinoa asked. "Oh right! He says that you got a point, but you never know. Anything could happen. He also said that we shouldn't worry. He doesn't think she will do anything with you.", Squall said. Rinoa nodded. "But I am worried about our baby. If I am still a sorceress, won't any of my powers pass to it?", she asked like she was talking to herself. "I don't know my love. We will find out. Let's hope it will be healthy. Sorceress or not.", Squall said and smiled at her. Rinoa smiled back. "You are right.", she said looking out of the window and watching Deling city from afar. "You know what?", Squall asked. "Not really.", Rinoa replied turning to face him. "Selphie has a nice sex sound.", he said laughing. "Oh shut up and drive.", Rinoa replied laughing as well. "You know I miss you.", Squall said winking at her. Rinoa laughed. "Just drive! And don't listen to other people when they have sex.", she replied laughing again. Squall laughed. "Sorry, but they were yelling, while I was passing out of their room to come down to the living room.", Squall said. "I got scared for a while.", he added laughing. Rinoa laughed along.

"Good morning.", Selphie said while staring in Irvine's closed eyes. She was lying on him naked. "You know we didn't really sleep, right?", Irvine said as he opened his eyes. "I do. But the sun is out and I want some breakfast. Don't you want?", she asked. "Well, I would eat something.", Irvine replied smiling. "Okay! You stay here and I am going to bring some breakfast for us here.", she said and she tried to leave the room. "Wait!", Irvine almost yelled. "What's wrong?", she asked while turning to face him. "Are you going downstairs like this?", he asked. Selphie took a look on her body and then realized she was naked. They both laughed. "You are right, I should wear something.", she said and dressed up quickly. Then she got out of the room and rushed downstairs. Zell was coming out of the kitchen at that moment. "Good morining Zell! How are you?", Selphie asked. Zell smiled. "Good morning to you Selphie. I am fine, thanks. I am sure you are perfect.", Zell replied. "What do you mean?", she asked as she entered the kitchen. "WOW!", she said loudly. "What?", Zell asked. "You did all of this?", she asked pointing at the table, which was full of breakfast. Zell smiled. "I couldn't sleep much so I got up early.", he replied. "Sorry for not letting you sleep.", she said. "Don't worry about it.", Zell said and moved to the living room. 'Poor Zell. If he only had a girlfriend he would be happier.', she thought while placing things on a tray she found in the kitchen. "Wow! You did all of this for me?", Irvine asked as he entered the Kitchen. "What did I tell you to do?", Selphie asked with a furious look. "Take it easy. I was thinking that we should not lay down on there. We were in there for like eight hours.", Irvine said. "Well, you are right. Let's eat here then.", Selphie said and she took a sit. "You did all of this?", he asked again. "Nope. Zell did all of this. We didn't allow him to sleep.", Selphie explained. "You think he is the only one that wasn't allowed to sleep?", Quistis asked while entering the Kitchen. "Right. ZELL!", Irvine yelled. "What's wrong?", Zell asked while entering the Kitchen as well. "Sorry guys for not allowing you to sleep. It was a bad action from us.", Irvine said. Selphie agreed with him. "Don't worry guys. I also wanted to do this breakfast as an apology for yesterday. It wasn't right for me to leave like this.", Zell said. "No, it was our fault pushing you.", Selphie replied. "No no. It was me. End of conversation. When you done all eating, we can go to the downtown.", Zell said. "Of course.", Quistis said. "Oh! And what about Rinoa and Squall? I didn't see them at all.", Zell asked. "There was a note from Rinoa. It was saying that Squall got crazy or something and the she said that she was laughing on her own while writing this note.", Selphie said giggling. Everyone laughed.

"Hey love. Wake up, we arrived.", Squall whispered at Rinoa's ear. She didn't respond. Squall sighed. Squall got out of the car and moved to her side. "Squall? Is that you?", Ellone's voice could be heard. Squall looked up to a balcony. "It's me Sis. Will you open the door for me?", Squall said smiling. It was still dark when they arrived. "Alright. Let's go.", Squall said and took Rinoa on his arms. He moved inside Ellone's house and found her there smiling. Squall smiled back at her and then moved at a room that Ellone was pointing. There was a bed where she placed her. 'Well I could sit in the car and stare at her sleeping face.', he thought. He moved out of the room and closed the door behind him. Ellone rushed and hugged him. Squall hugged her as well. "I missed you my brother.", she said while crying. "I missed you too.", Squall said. "What brings you here?", she asked still hugging him. "I wanted to see you and mother.", he replied. "Are you staying for long?", she asked. "Not really. We'll have to leave tomorrow but I am planning to come back and stay for more when our mission ends.", Squall replied. "I know. Uncle Laguna told me about it.", she said. "We better sleep cause tomorrow is going to be a great day. I am planning to do some stuff around here before leaving.", he said. Ellone nodded and they stopped hugging. He moved near the door of the room that Rinoa was sleeping. "I like your hair Sis.", he said as he noticed it was shorter and black now. "Thanks.", she replied smiling.


	9. Chapter 9

Back to the Start (IX)

'Is this Ellone's house?', Rinoa thought when she opened her eyes. She looked next to her and found Squall sleeping. 'Most probably.', she replied to herself. She moved out of the bed and then out of the room. "Good morning!", Ellone said when she saw Rinoa walking around the house. Rinoa smiled. "Good morning Ellone.", Rinoa replied and hugged her. Ellone hugged her back. "Would you like some tea?", she asked. "I would love to have some tea.", Rinoa replied smiling. Ellone nodded. "Go take a sit at the balcony. It is a great day today.", Ellone said pointing at the balcony. Rinoa nodded and moved out to the balcony. "It is a great day indeed.", she said quietly. She noticed some girls walking and laughing near the flower store. She also noticed some kids playing across the road. "I would love to grow you up here.", she said looking and touching her belly. "Wow!", Ellone said. "Does that action means you are waiting for a baby?", she asked. Rinoa smiled. "I am waiting for Squall's baby.", Rinoa replied smling. "That's so nice!", Ellone said smiling as well. "And you said you would love living here.", Ellone added. "Yeah! It's so peaceful and people seem to be really kind.", Rinoa said excited looking out of the balcony. Ellone smiled. "Don't fall over, my love!", Squall said as soon as he got out to the balcony and tried to take her hand. "Good morning.", Rinoa said smiling and took a sit. Squall smiled. "How are you ladies?", he asked. "The perfect weather makes us feel even better.", Ellone said smiling. Rinoa agreed. "I heard something about "kind people" and then I thought Rinoa was falling.", he said giggling. "We'll talk about the "kind people" topic later, my love.", Rinoa said and hugged him. "When are we leaving for mom?", Squall asked. "Whenever you two want. It's not that far away.", Ellone replied. "Why not going now?", Rinoa asked. Squall smiled at her. "Alright then!", Ellone said. "If you want clothes, there are some at the room you two slept.", she added. Squall and Rinoa nodded and went to the room. "Wow!", Rinoa said excited. "Look at that blue! It's so beautiful!", she added. Squall didn't even take a look. "Just wear whatever you want.", he said. "Don't you want to see it?", she asked. "I will see it when you wear it.", Squall said. He took some clothes he found in a drawer and then left the room to let Rinoa get changed. 'This must be dad's clothes.', he thought as he went to the bathroom to get changed. After he got changed and came out of the bathroom, he was amazed. It was Rinoa in a long blue dress with a blue hat which had some white cords that were mixed with her hair. "You like it?", she asked while making a twist. "You are gorgeous. It suits you really well.", he said. "This was mother's favorite dress.", Ellone said when she saw her. "Oh. I will go and get changed.", Rinoa said when she heard about it. "No no. Don't take it off. It's really nice on you.", Ellone said smiling. "How about we start walking?", Ellone asked. Squall nodded in agreement. "I can carry the basket you hold, for you.", Squall said and moved closed to Ellone. "Thanks, but I would love to hold it myself.", Ellone said and smiled. After a while, they made it to Raine's tomb. Rinoa gathered some multicolor flowers she found along the way there. She placed them next to the tomb. Dead silence. No one talked for a while. Finally, Ellone and Rinoa left Squall alone with his mother. "Hi mom.", Squall started talking on his own. "I am sorry I never came before. I won't try to make excuses for myself. I was stupid that I never came since now. I really love you and I am really grateful that you gave me this ring and necklace to protect me. I hope Rinoa could meet you. I hope I could meet you. I guess, I will someday.", Squall said and then smiled. He kissed the tomb and then joined the girls. "What's up ladies?", he asked as soon as he got there. "We just started setting the picnic.", Rinoa replied. "Ellone.", Squall said. Ellone turned to look at him. "Can I take Rinoa for a moment? Actually, you know what for.", Squall said. Ellone smiled. "Of course.", she said. "What is it my love?", Rinoa asked full of curiosity. "Just come with me. Okay?", Squall asked. Rinoa nodded and took his hand. They walked a bit and they found themselves on top of the hill. The view was amazing. There could be seen all of Winhill and the road leading to Deling, on one side. On the other side, they could see the sea. "That's the perfect place.", he said. "What for?", Rinoa asked. "You always ask to many questions.", Squall said laughing. "Now it's my turn to ask you something.", he said and then fell on his knees. "Rinoa Heartily, Will you marry me tonight?", he asked and opened a little box with a blue diamond ring. "Oh, it's so beautiful.", she said staring at him. "Not compared to you.", he said and smiled at her. She blushed. "What do you mean with "tonight"?", she asked. "After we return to Winhill, we go to the church and then we are going to get married.", he replied. "What's with the rush?", she asked. "We were going to get married some time ago and it went to far. I just want to marry you. And of course, you never know what will happen in the battlefield. If I am going to die, I want to die married with you.", he said and kept staring in her eyes. Rinoa got tears running on her cheeks. "Let's get married tonight my love.", she said and fell in his arms. "I love you.", he whispered. "I love you.", she whispered as well and then they kissed.

At the exact same time in Balamb Garden, the machine was ready. "Everyone, your attention please.", Odine said and stoop up on a chair. "Thanks for your help. Your work here is now done. I would really appreciate if you could leave the room quickly. I don't mean like, quickly cause of something scary. I just want some privacy.", he said. Everyone agreed. Laguna got close to Odine. "Want me to stay?", he asked. "Go to the Quad and wait there for me.", he said. Laguna nodded and left with everyone else. When everyone was gone, he took his hand out of his pocket and he was holding a pool-size ball with a blue beam inside it. 'Let's see what happens.', he thought and placed the ball at a certain point at the machine. Immediately the room got dark. Then blue beams were shooting out of the machine at random directions. Odine got scared for a second and thought of going hiding behind a chair or something, but he had to see this. The blue beams gathered at the ceiling and then fell on the machine. Then a bright light couldn't allow Odine keep his eyes open. After the bright light was gone, Odine opened his eyes. "Huh?", he said when he found out that the machine was missing. "What the hell?", he said. Then he looked at the ground where the machine was supposed to be. He started laughing. The machine was missing, but at the point where the machine was, there was now a draw point. Odine rushed out of the room and then headed for the Quad. On the way there he found Kiros going to the Quad as well. "Kiros! I need your help.", he said as soon as he got close to him. "What is it Odine?", Kiros asked. "I need to you to go to the Lab and guard the door. I want no one inside. Not even you. Okay?", Odine said and tried to leave. "Okay, I will. But I will need some explanations later about it.", Kiros said. "Don't worry.", Odine said and they both left. As soon as he entered the Quad, he spotted Laguna. 'Rush, rush, rush!', Odine thought. "Laguna!", he said from afar. "Hey Odine!", Laguna said waving at him. "We have to go really quick at the Lab. We need Ward as well.", Odine said. "What? Why?", Laguna asked. "I will explain there. Don't worry.", Odine replied. "I will go find Ward and we will come to you.", Laguna said and left Odine. "Good.", Odine said and rushed back to the Lab. There was Kiros in front of the door. "So?", Kiros asked when Odine came close enough. "Wait a little bit. We need Laguna and Ward. Just be patient.", Odine said. Kiros nodded. After some time, Laguna along with Ward arrived at the Lab. "Hey Kiros.", Laguna said and Ward waved at him. "Let's go inside.", Odine said and opened the door. When they got inside the three of them, Kiros Ward and Laguna, were amazed. "What you did to the machine man?", Laguna asked amazed. "Don't worry. I just completed it.", Odine replied. "And where is it?", Kiros asked. "I told you it's ancient magic. No machine can cast a really powerfull spell such is this.", Odine replied. "Then, why did we make it in the first place?", Kiros asked. "Well I didn't really expect that to happen, but the machine activated a draw point with the spell. Now we just want one of the six guys draw it. I would suggest Rinoa, she has some Sorceress powers in her and that makes it the right person.", Odine said. "But something troubles me.", Odine added. "What is it?", Laguna asked. "Rinoa is waiting for a baby. If Squall isn't aware of that, I can't let her use the magic with the risk of her baby hurt.", Odine said. "What is she waiting for you said?", Laguna asked with really wide eyes. "For a baby.", Odine said and smiled. "And how do you know that and Squall doesn't?", Laguna asked. "He may know it by now, but when I told her about how I found out about it, she said that he didn't know yet.", Odine replied. "Am I going to be a grandpa?", Laguna asked. "Well, look at yourself. You are a grandpa.", Kiros said and everyone laughed.

"Can you hear that?", Ellone asked when they entered the Winhill in the afternoon. "Something specific?", Squall asked. "Yeah! The church bells.", she said and started to walk faster. "Yeah, we do hear them. Is there a possibility we won't find anyone there?", Squall asked. "Yes there is. So, walk faster!", Ellone said. Squall and Rinoa nodded and joined her speed walk. After a while they were in front of the church. Squall opened the front door and the girls walked in. "Is anyone here?", Rinoa asked loudly. No one answered. "The bells are still heard, Sis.", Squall said. "Wait here. I will go see who is ringing them.", Ellone said and opened a door. She quickly found her self at the bell strings. There she found the priest. "Hello.", Ellone said. The priest trurned to face her. "How can I help you, Ellone?", he asked. "Can you come with me, please?", she asked. "Of course.", he replied and they both moved in the church. "Hello.", he said when he saw Squall and Rinoa. "Hello. We want to get married.", Squall said. "Oh, you want to organize your marriage. Do you have any specific date in your mind?", the priest asked. "Yeah we do. Right now!", Squall replied. "It can't be done right now. Don't you want to plan anything? Where is your family and friends?", he asked. "We just want to get married. Ellone is my sister and we are fine if she's the only person here.", Squall replied and Rinoa agreed. "Are you sure?", the priest asked. "We can't be more sure for this.", Rinoa replied and Squall smiled at her. "Okay then. Excuse me for a moment to get some stuff required.", the priest said and moved into a little room.

"Guys guys guys!", Quistis yelled inside the Mansion while getting down the stairs. "What's wrong Quistis?", Zell asked. "I need to tell you something.", she said when everyone gathered at the Living room. "What is it?", Irvine asked. "I just talked to Odine.", she said and took a sit. "And?", Selphie asked. "We are ready to begin the mission.", she said. "Well that was fast machine building!", Irvine said. "I also learned about Squall and Rinoa. They are at Winhill. Squall wanted to visit Ellone and his mother's tomb.", Quistis said. "Oh.", everyone said. "How about, we wait for them until they come back and then move into the Garden again?", Quistis asked. "Right. Let's give them some more time.", Selphie said. Everyone agreed.

Ellone opened the door of the house. "Thanks for everything Sister, but we better sleep down and you stay in your house.", Squall said. "No. I insist. Go inside and I will close the door behind you.", she said. Squall smiled. He was carrying Rinoa on his arms and she was laughing about it. Squall was smiling while getting up some stairs. Ellone opened the bar door and moved in. She went upstairs and found a lovely sofa. 'So, there is my bed for tonight.', she thought. She tried to make her self comfortable, so she took some of her clothes off. 'What a warm night, tonight.', she thought as she laid down on the sofa. "Goodnight!", she said on her own and tried to sleep. At a certain point, she heard some strange noises. 'What's that?', she thought and looked up. 'Oh. I forgot about that. It's their wedding night.', she thought and giggled. She turned around and tried to sleep again.

Squall was staring at Rinoa sleeping. "Love you.", he whispered. Then he remembered about Ellone. 'Oh. I better go and see if she's okay.', he thought and got out of bed. Rinoa didn't react. Squall kind of giggled about it. He moved out of the room and closed the door behind him. Finally, he was out of the house and headed for the bar. It was a warm, but beautiful night. The sky was clear and the stars along with the moon could be seen clearly. "I never imagined I could be so close to the moon some day.", he said to himself when he recalled his space adventure. He had keys for the bar, so he unlocked the door and got inside. "Where are you Sis?', he thought. 'She is probably upstairs.', he thought when he noticed the stairs. He climbed the staircase and opened the door in the middle of it. 'There she is!', he thought when he found Ellone. 'But, she is wearing nearly nothing.', he thought. Then he noticed her bra over a chair. 'Well, she is my Sis. I will carry her upstairs to he bed. I don't think she will be mad if she finds out that I saw her naked.', he thought. He took her clothes and Ellone on his arms. 'Just don't stare at her, man.', he thought. He moved pretty quickly to the house and placed her bed, in her room. 'Good job mate.', he thought. He got down to lock the bar and close the door of the house. Then he joined Rinoa in her sleep.

Ellone opened her eyes. 'Wait a second.', she thought. 'I am not wearing a bra. I remember taking it off, so we are okay about it. But I am in my room. I didn't sleep here.', she thought. 'Squall must have brought me here, which means that he saw me naked!', she thought and blushed. She got dressed and got out of the room. She moved slowly so that no one understand that she woke up. She found Squall out to the balcony, drinking something. 'Should I react like nothing happened? He is my brother. It's not that bad.', she thought. "Join me outside Ellone.", Squall said. "How you know it's me?", Ellone asked while getting outside to the balcony. "I am a fighter. I have to be able to understand where anyone is with only my ears.", he explained. "Interesting!", Ellone said and took a sit. "Why are you red?", Squall asked when she noticed her red face. "Am I?", she said and blushed even more. "You got full red now.", he replied. "Excuse me for a while.", she said and tried to leave. "No wait. I know why you are red. But don't worry. I assure you I didn't look at your body.", Squall said. Ellone turned her head to face down. "I am sorry. But I couldn't let you down there sleep.", he said and tried to hug her. Ellone hugged him. "Thanks brother. It's just that...", she started saying and stop. "What is it Sis?", he asked. "Well, no one ever saw me naked after I grew up.", she said. "Really?", Squall asked. "Yeah.", she replied. "Well you don't have to worry. I didn't either. And no one was around when I carried you upstairs.", he said still hugging her. "Well, if it's you, I don't have a problem. You are my brother.", she said. Squall gave her a kiss on her cheek. "We will have to go in a while.", Squall said when they stopped hugging. "So soon?", she asked. "Yeah. You know, Rinoa made a great suggestion last night. She really loves this place, even thought it's the first time we come here, and she said, why not staying here when our mission is over.", he said. "That's wonderful! What do you say about it?", Ellone asked. "It would be a great idea.", he replied. Ellone smiled. "I am so happy now. You can stay here, or at another house that will be for sale when you decide to come.", Ellone said. "We will see.", Squall said smiling. "But for now, I have to go and get the car ready. Will you wake Rinoa up for me, please?", Squall asked. "Yeah, sure.", Ellone said and they both stand up. Squall got down and checked some spots on the car. After a little while, Rinoa and Ellone got out of the house. "Can't we stay a bit logner?", Rinoa asked. "Sorry my love. We have to go back. We will come back pretty soon thought.", he replied. Rinoa got inside the car and Squall did the same. Ellone came close to Rinoa's window. "Thank you Sis. We really appreciate what you did for us.", Squall said. Ellone smiled. "I am really happy to have you with me guys. Good luck on your mission and we are going to see each other soon.", she said. "Take care.", Rinoa said and the car started moving. Rinoa had some tears on her eyes. "Don't worry my love. We are going to be back here.", Squall said. "I know.", she said and smiled at him. She got her head out of the window and waved at Ellone, who was waving at them. "Take care little brother.", Ellone whispered.


	10. Chapter 10

Back to the Start (X)

It was almost night when Squall and Rinoa arrived at Deling City. "Finally!", Rinoa said while stretching her hands up in the air and they hit the roof of the car. "What about taking some pizza for the Mansion?", Squall asked as they passed by a pizzeria. "Good idea. We can do a prank to the guys over there.", Rinoa said and giggled. "I love your ideas.", Squall replied and parked the car close to the pizzeria. After the pizza was ready, they got back inside the car and drove to the mansion. They parked the car and got to the door of the Mansion. "What now?", Squall whispered. "You are going to knock the door and then say with a deep voice "Pizza boy"!", Rinoa whispered and start laughing quietly on just the idea of Squall doing this. Squall smiled. He got close to the door and knocked it. Irvine from the inside could be heard. "Who's on the door?", Irvine asked. "Pizza boy!", Squall said with a really deep voice. Rinoa wanted to laugh really hard but she managed to hold back herself. "Did you guys order pizza?", Irvine yelled inside the Mansion as he opened the door. Then he saw Squall and Rinoa trying to hold back themselves from laughing. "Oh, that Pizza!", Irvine said. "Can we go to the kitchen without being seen?", Rinoa asked whispering. Irvine nodded in a way of saying "No.". "Can you do me a favor Quistis?", Irvine asked and closed the door behind him. Quistis turned to face him. "Can you bring me my wallet from my room? Please?", Irvine asked smiling. Quistis sighed and stood up. "Thanks a lot!", Irvine said smiling. As soon as Quistis got up the staircase, Irvine opened the door and Rinoa along with Squall rushed in the kitchen. "Oh, Quistis!", Irvine yelled. "I have it on me.", he added. Quistis closed the door and came back down. "At least I saw Selphie naked.", she said laughing. Irvine smiled. "Did you order pizza?", Quistis asked. "I did!", Irvine replied. "Can I take a slice?", Quistis asked. "You can. But, how about waiting for Selphie and Zell to come down? How about we cal them down? You take Zell, I take Selphie and General?", Irvine asked. "You take Zell and General, I take Selphie. I don't want to see Zell naked.", Quistis said and giggled. Irvine laughed and they both started climbing the staircase. Rinoa took a slice of pizza and started eating. Squall laughed. "What?", Rinoa asked. "Nothing. Nothing.", Squall said while laughing. Rinoa giggled. After a while, they heard some talking. "They are coming!", Squall whispered. "So? Just eat.", Rinoa whispered back. Squall smiled and grabbed a slice of pizza. "You are back!", Selphie said loudly with her high pitch voice. Rinoa and Squall smiled. "And they are eating the pizza.", Zell said. Everyone laughed. "Join us!", Rinoa said and everyone took a sit. "Where have you been guys?", the General asked. "Winhill! I really wanted to visit Ellone and Mother.", Squall replied. Quistis smiled. "And...", Rinoa said and raised her hand, showing off her ring. Squall smiled at her. "Look at that ring! It's so beautiful!", Selphie said smiling. "We got married over there.", Rinoa said smiling at Squall. Everyone else was socked. "When did you manage to do all these things.", Irvine asked. "And we were absent from your wedding!", Selphie said. "There was just Ellone there. No one else. It's probably the final mission. We wanted to get married before that.", Squall said. "Congratulations!", Caraway said smiling. Everyone agreed. "Oh! About the mission.", Quistis said. "What about it?", Squall asked. "We are ready to begin. Actually, we are leaving tomorrow!", Quistis said. "Alright!", Zell said, being ready for it. "Let's eat and get some rest then!", Squall said. Everyone laughed and resumed eating.

"Anxious for tomorrow?", Squall asked Rinoa when she joined him in their bed. "A bit.", she replied. "You?", she asked. "I really want to see Odine's machine.", Squall replied. Rinoa nodded in agreement. "Give me a hug to help me sleep.", Rinoa said. Squall smiled, hugged her and they both got to sleep like this.

"We are going to sleep tonight. Alright?", Irvine asked, while Selphie started getting undressed. "Fine!", she replied and got her clothes back on. "I don't know if I can sleep.", Selphie said as she joined Irvine in their bed. "What bothers you?", he asked. "It's a bit hot in here, right?", she asked. "Not really. Oh, come on! We have to rest tonight and have our heads down tomorrow.", Irvine said. "I know. That's why, we could do something that it's not that tiring.", Selphie said and smiled in a kinky way. "We still have to take a bath after that.", Irvine replied. "Just hug me then.", Selphie said. "Come here you hot babe! We can do whatever you want after we finish with Ultimecia.", Irvine said and hugged her. Selphie smiled and they slept like this.

A great day was starting with the sun slowly rising in the skies. It was the start of an important mission. Everyone hopped it was the last as well. Everyone woke up in the Mansion and moved downstairs. Rinoa's father, General Caraway, prepared breakfast for them to thank them for making the Mansion a lively place once again. Everyone ate quickly and thanked him for the breakfast. "You shouldn't have done that dad. Just letting us stay here is more than enough.", Rinoa argued with her father. "I just felt like I wanted to thank you and I did it! So, enjoy the breakfast and good luck on your mission!", Caraway said smiling. Everyone smiled at him. After everyone was ready for departure, they gathered at the living room which was pretty close to the entrance of the Mansion. "Look at us! With our old clothes. It reminds me of the missions we had before we take on Ultimecia in the first place.", Selphie said excited. Everyone smiled at her. "We do look nice, don't we?", Rinoa asked and laughed. "I certainly do!", Irvine said. "Oh come on!", everyone else said with one voice. "What? I am just telling the truth!", Irvine said and laughed. "Just walk to the car you smartass.", Selphie said pushing him to the front door. Everyone else laughed. Rinoa got a bit back to her dad. "I love you dad. Thanks for everything.", she whispered. Caraway smiled at her. "I love you too.", he whispered back. Rinoa smiled and moved out of the Mansion like everyone else did. There were two cars outside. "When did we take another car from the Garden?", Squall asked. "Well, when you guys left, we needed a way to go the Garden. I was already in the Garden, so I took one.", Zell replied. "Oh.", Squall said and nodded. "Okay. Let's go!", Quistis said. Everyone got in the cars and got ready to leave. They waved back to Caraway, who was already been waving at them and they drove away.

"What's the rush?", Cid asked when the six friends rushed in the office, scaring Odine and Cid. "We are ready to fight!", Squall said. "You certainly are! And we have the basis of the plan.", Odine replied laughing a bit. "Good!", Squall replied. "When are we leaving?", Selphie asked. "Actually, we are ready for departure.", Cid replied. "Should I make the announcement?", Xu asked from the bridge. "Proceed to the announcement, Xu.", Cid replied. Xu made the announcement and the engines of the Garden worked once again. It lifted up in the air and started moving to the west. "Alright. Plan time.", Odine said and took out a map of the island. "We can land here.", Quistis suggested while pointing a certain place on the map. "I remember founding a lot of draw points around that area.", she added. "Great.", Odine replied. "So we land there.", he added. "I go alone out to the island and search for a draw point.", Squall said. "Alone? What about the monsters?", Rinoa asked. "What about them?", Squall asked back. "You need help. We will come with you.", Rinoa replied. "Nope. You stay back and create 6 groups. You will lead the first 5 groups and I will lead the remaining group.", Squall said. "We are going to use the groups to storm the place faster. We know how to handle the island monsters. Our SeeDs are strong. With our guidance, fighting the monsters will be a piece of cake.", Squall added. "He got a point there.", Cid said. "I got another idea as well.", Odine said. "There could be no draw points. There could be shields over the castle.", he said. "That's pretty bad.", Zell said. "Yes, it is. That's why someone will try to attack the castle's door and we will find out if there is a shield. About the draw points, we can't do much. Let's just hope that if they tried to hide all of them, they missed one.", Odine said. "Why would they hide the draw points? Do they know about the device?", Quistis asked. "Orion is an ancient magician as he says. My device is an old spell. They knew the importance of draw points back then. Today, it's just a source of power. A spell enhancement in other words. Back in the days, some spells needed the true power of the draw point to be casted. These kind of spells were really dangerous for the world, that's why they were banned and you don't know anything about them.", Odine replied. "And about the device.", Odine added. "I need you all to go to my lab.", he said. "In the evening we will call out for a meeting in the Quad, in order to announce the plan.", Cid said. Everyone agreed and moved out of the office. They followed Odine in his lab. "Hey there!", Laguna and Kiros said when they saw all of them coming in then lab. Everyone waved and smiled. "Why is this place so empty?", Zell asked. "You will see in a second.", Odine said and moved close to Kiros and Laguna. "You can stop guarding it now.", he said. "Guard?", Squall asked. "Just wait a second!", Odine replied. Laguna, Kiros and Ward moved close to Squall, Rinoa, Irvine, Selphie, Zell and Quistis who were all really curious to see what Odine was preparing. "Rinoa, can you come over here?", Odine asked. "Okay.", she replied and moved close to him. "Draw this please.", Odine said pointing at a draw point. "How did this appear in here?", she asked. "Just draw it and I will explain everything later.", Odine said. Rinoa nodded and took a step closer. A green circle aura started from her feet and ended at her fingers. "Draw.", she said and some purple beams got out of the draw point. They ended up in her. The draw point vanished after that. Odine nodded and turned to the others. "When the machine was done, it transformed into a draw point. The spell that Rinoa just got, is the spell I was talking about. I didn't give it a name and I didn't find one for it in my papers. You can cast it when near a draw point and you have just a single use of it.", Odine said. "But why Rinoa?", Squall asked. "She has some Sorceress powers left inside her. The fail percentage of the spell is at the minimum levels when Rinoa casts it.", Odine replied. "Go now and we will all see you in the evening at the Quad.", Odine added. Everyone agreed and slowly got out of the lab, leaving Odine alone.

The sound of the intercom turned on could be heard everywhere on the Garden. Squall and the others were already at the Quad and already knew that the announcement would invite everyone to the Quad to introduce the plan. Xu's voice could be heard inviting everyone at the Quad in order to brief for the mission. In just a few minutes everyone gathered there and took a sit on the floor. "First of all.", Squall started saying when he got close to a microphone. "This is more of an discussion and not normal mission briefing. We are going to tell you a plan we have in our minds. If anyone has something to say about it or suggest something else, he or she should say it.", Squall said and everyone around nodded in agreement. Laguna stood up. "You have something to say, right?", Squall said staring at him. "Kiros, Ward and I want to fight and be included in this mission.", Laguna said and Kiros agreed. Ward nodded in agreement as he couldn't talk. "We will rely on your help as well then.", Squall said. Laguna nodded and took a sit back down. "So.", Squall started saying. "We will make six groups and print them on the main hall's board. As soon as we land we will find out if we can enter the castle. Then, we go in and we will start fighting our way to the master room. Let's hope there is one in the first place. The six leaders of the groups will be Quistis Trepe, Selphie Timmett, Rinoa Heartily, Zell Dincht, Irvine Kinneas and I, Squall Leonhart. After we find the Master room we are going to cast a teleport spell in order to send the SeeDs back to the Garden. The six leaders will form a single group and end the mission. As soon as the SeeDs are back to the Garden, the Garden must leave the island and go across it. We don't want to risk the Garden and the Seeds taking damage cause of an explosion or anything.", Squall said moving his hands. "You want us to leave you behind?", Cid asked while standing up. "Yes. That's what I ask from you.", Squall replied. Rinoa stood up and moved close to Squall. "I agree with Squall. Don't worry about us.", she said. Squall turned his head on his left side where Rinoa was standing close up and smiled at her. "I don't know.", Cid said as he looked skeptical. Irvine and the others got up and moved behind of Squall. "We want to be sure that the Garden and the SeeDs are safe.", Irvine said and everyone around him agreed with him. "Okay then. Tomorrow morning we will be arriving at the island and we can start the mission right away.", Cid said. Squall nodded. "Anyone wants to ask anything?", Squall said. No one responded. "Good. Let's relax now.", Squall said.


	11. Chapter 11

Back to the Start (XI)

"Are they ever going to come over here? I am bored!", Orion said to Ultimecia as he entered the master room. "Just be patient.", she replied without even looking at him. "But I am really bored.", Orion said again. Ultimecia turned her head to face him. "Go check the draw points once more.", she said. "I already did.", he replied. "Draw points are powerful. Go check them again.", Ultimecia said. "Don't tell me about the properties of draw points. I know way more stuff about them than you do.", Orion said and tried to leave the room. The doors closed in front of him, not letting him to leave. "What did you say?", Ultimecia asked and stood up. She start moving slowly close to Orion. "I said the truth! I know ancient magic that use draw points. They disappear from the face of the earth and never re appear, so don't worry about checking them again.", he said in a furious way as he moved close to Ultimecia. 'This is the first time someone that works with me talks to me like this.', she thought. They stood there staring at each other. "Anyway. I am off to get relieved by this boring feeling I have.", Orion said and turned around. 'And now he leaves just like this?', she thought once again. "Can you open the doors?", he asked when he tried to open the door and found that it was locked. "Yeah, sure.", she said and unlocked the door. 'This was a new experience.', she thought. She took a sit again and kept on thinking again and again of what happened. 'Why am I thinking this again and again? It wasn't a big deal but no one ever talked to me like that.', she thought.

"Attention. Anyone that wants to see how it is to fight a really powerful monster like the ones on the isle, please come to the Training Center .", Xu's voice could be heard everywhere in the Garden. The "Six Leaders" where already there and waited for a couple of minutes. In a little while, almost every SeeD of the Garden was in the Training Center. "I think we should start.", Squall said. Everyone nodded. Zell headed in the center of the crowd and took a quick look around him. "I am sure you all know that a level 100 monster is a tough one to beat. That is not enough though. We are going to show you here what the real power of the monster is and that it is pretty easy to take it down if you know it's weak spot.", Zell said. He moved out of the crowd and joined the rest of his team. "What do we have at this level?", Squall asked quietly to Zell. "Not much. I think only some dinosaurs left at a lower level.", Zell replied also quietly. "We should tell them that it is at lower level.", Squall suggested. Zell nodded in agreement. "I was just informed that we don't have a monster at that level. That's why we are going to face a weaker one. It will still be tough but not as much as the monsters around the island.", Zell announced. The crowd was really excited to see the heroes in action. A loud roar heard and then the earth start shaking. The six heroes scattered around in a half circle shape until they saw the T-Rex approaching fast. "Slow!", Quistis yelled and casted the spell onto the dinosaur. This made it run in a slow motion way and gave the team time to surround it. "Meltdown!", Rinoa yelled at her turn and the dinosaur instantly turned pink. "Water!", Selphie said and a huge ball of water appeared above the dinosaur who couldn't react. Suddenly, the ball fell onto the dinosaur and made it wet. The ball was so big that made some small scaled lakes. "It's weak spot is the water, so get your weapons wet.", Squall yelled so that his team could hear him. Squall got his gunblade wet and attacked the monster. That made a serious wound and it couldn't move at all now. Zell took a look at Squall and nodded at him. The rest of them team disturbed the dinosaur in such a way that it didn't realize that Squall had moved really close to it. "Now Squall!", Zell yelled suddenly and everyone stopped their attacks. Squall took a leap and cut its head off. The blood splashed and everyone had some drops of blood on their clothes. Rinoa was at the unfortunate position that the splash covered her with blood. She ran over to the side and vomited. Squall quickly got next to her. "We should consider again your position in the battle.", Squall said as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "It's been a long time since I last had a blood shower. That's all. I'll be alright now.", Rinoa said and stood up. Everyone clapped when they saw Rinoa standing up. Rinoa laughed. Squall nodded and smiled at her. "Thanks for coming everyone. Let's rest till tomorrow's battle.", Irvine said and everyone got slowly out of the training center.

On the way to the rooms, Zell stopped walking and everyone turned around to face him. "What's wrong Zell?", Selphie asked. "I think...", Zell said and gone quiet without finishing his sentence. "What Zell?", Irvine asked. "I believe I am hungry!", Zell said while rubbing his stomach. Almost everyone placed their palms on their faces. "I am hungry as well. Let's go to the Cafeteria.", Quistis said. The rest of them looked at each other and then with one voice they said "We are fine.". Quistis and Zell nodded at them and turned around to go to the Cafeteria while the other four headed for their rooms. Once they reached the Cafeteria, Zell noticed the hotdogs that were about to be grilled. "Let's grab those hotdogs before someone gets them.", Zell said and accelerated. Quistis giggled and got next to him at the cashier. They got their hotdogs and shat to the first free table they spotted. "We were lucky to find a table and some hotdogs, aren't we?", Quistis asked. "Yeah, yeah!", Zell replied shortly and pushed a hotdog into his mouth. "Hey! Take it easy! No one is going to get that from you!", Quistis said in her giggles. "Well you are right, but I am starving here.", Zell said with his mouth full. Quistis laughed. Zell smiled. After Zell was done with his hotdogs, he noticed that Quistis's plate was untouched. "Ehm.", Zell said and Quistis turned to face him instantly. "Are you okay?", Zell asked. "Well, I am not really hungry. You can have mine as well if you want.", she replied smiling. "Is everything alright? You said you were hungry earlier.", Zell said staring at her. "Well, I just wanted to talk to you. That's why I said I was hungry.", Quistis said while looking at the table. "Talk to me then!", Zell said and touched her shoulder. Quistis looked at him and smiled. Quistis took a deep breath. "I am really jealous of the other guys. They all found love and stuff and I am all alone. Don't you feel the same?", she said looking in his eyes. Zell turned to face the cashier. "I know it's not a comfortable talk.", Quistis said and touched his hand. "Look. I am kind of jealous of them, but I don't feel alone and you should feel alone as well. I and you know that if we call for someone there will be our friends.", Zell said. "Well you are right. It's just that I never actually had a boyfriend before. That's the main reason that makes me jealous of them. They have all this experience in love. I feel that I am falling back and I don't understand how it is to love someone. I don't mean friendly love.", Quistis said. "I get what you are talking about. But it's not that big of a deal. I never had a girlfriend before actually. Just don't worry about it. We are here for you. Whatever you are afraid of or you want to try, we are here.", Zell said. "Well, I have something that I want to do and I believe you can help me.", Quistis said quietly. "Why are you talking quietly?", Zell asked. "Will you come with me, please?", Quistis said. "Of course.", Zell said and they both stood up. Quistis took his hand and started walking with fast steps. "Are we in a rush?", Zell asked. "Maybe. Just come with me.", Quistis replied. Soon they were in Quistis's room. "So?", Zell asked. "You said you will help me if I want something, right?", Quistis asked in reply. "Yeah, I said that.", Zell replied. Quistis did a quick action and took all her clothes off. "No one ever looked at me naked.", she said. Zell quickly turned the other way not to look. "And you want me to look at you naked?", Zell asked. "Yes, if you can. And I want you to get naked as well.", Quistis replied. "And then we are going to make love? That's your plan?", Zell asked still looking the other way. "Well, I was hoping that this would happen. I just want to try it.", Quistis said. "You will not say this to anyone. Okay?", Zell asked. "Don't worry.", she replied. Zell took his cloth off and turned around. They kept staring each other naked. A few seconds passed and Zell took a sit on the bed. Quistis did the same. She took a sit next to him. "You can touch me if you want.", Quistis said. Zell was a bit sweaty. He touched her breast. She instantly touched his male organ. He was surprised. "Are you scared at all?", Quistis asked. "The truth is that I am a bit.", Zell replied. "Well, I am a bit as well.", she said. Zell lied down on the bed and Quistis got on top of him. She "took a sit" on him. "How does this feel?", Quistis asked. "Good actually.", Zell replied. "I agree.", Quistis said smiling.

At the same moment, the rest of the team was at their rooms, resting. "How are you now, my love?", Squall asked when he saw Rinoa return from the bathroom. "Much better.", she replied and took a sit on his lap. Squall smiled. "Are you ready for tomorrow?", she asked as she placed her head on his chest. "I am fully prepared. What about you?", Squall said as he stroked her hair. She was enjoying this action and Squall could understand that from the smile on her face. "I believe I am ready. I just want everything to go well. Just that.", Rinoa said. "Don't worry about anything. Everything will go according to plan.", Squall said. "Oh! I forgot to ask you a favor.", Rinoa said. "Why don't you ask me now?", Squall asked. "I want you to tell me when to cast the spell in the battle.", Rinoa said. "I will. I believe you will understand when the time is right.", Squall said. "I just want to be sure I won't screw up.", Rinoa said. "You will be perfect as always.", Squall said. "Oh, stop. You really believe we will succeed that easy?", Rinoa asked. "I didn't say it will be easy. I just believe that we will make it. We will end this.", Squall replied. Rinoa stood up and looked at him. She could see the confidence in his eyes. Rinoa nodded. "Let's go to sleep. We have to wake up really early.", she said. Squall nodded in agreement and they both lied on their bed.

'Finally I will get some good sleep!', Irvine thought while he was stretching in his bed. Selphie coughed. He didn't really pay attention to that cough. Selphie coughed louder. "Are you okay?", Irvine asked as he opened his eyes and looked at her. "Oh god. Don't you want to rest?", he asked when he realized that she was naked. "Are you tired?", she asked. "I am a bit.", he replied. "Then let me do all the stuff.", she replied smiling. "How can I do that? When you start doing stuff like this, I can't just stay there and watch! I want to participate fully!", Irvine said. Selphie lifted her shoulders in question. "Just whatever. Come over here!", he said and she rushed giggling on the bed.

"Well?", Quistis asked when she woke up and saw Zell already awake. "It wasn't bad. Wasn't it?", he asked. "Not at all. We could do that again sometime.", she said. "Well, I don't know. I really see you like me sister more than a friend.", Zell said. "You don't find me sexy?", she asked. "Are you kidding? You are really sexy. I helped you with your problem. You actually helped me as well, but we could just leave it there.", he replied. "I believe I understand what you are talking about. Let's just go to the bridge and talk about this another time.", Quistis suggested. "Right.", Zell agreed.

When they got up there, they found Squall chatting with Cid and Nidda. "Did you know that if we didn't have the flying device we wouldn't be able to reach the island?", Nidda asked. "When did you get that device?", Squall asked. "Just right after you left. The fishermen wanted to thank us for helping them with some issued they were dealing.", Cid replied. "I see.", Squall replied as he noticed Zell and Quistis behind him. "Good morning guys. Are you ready?", he asked. They both nodded. "Why aren't we moving?", Quistis asked. "We are hiding behind a cliff. It's too early to attack. We will wait for an hour and we will go over there.", Cid replied. "Is the island over the cliff?", Zell asked. "Yes.", Squall replied.

After an hour passed, the engines of the Garden started. The sound of the Intercom coming online sounded everywhere. "Good morning. We are passing over the sea right now and then we will land in the Island Closest to hell. Everyone should gather at the front gate and take their positions. Let's saw them what we are made of!", Squall said close to the mic. Odine got up to the office with a device on his hands. It looked like a gun. "Squall, I have another mission for you.", Odine said. Squall nodded. "There is a chance not to be a draw point in the Castle. So I want you to go out alone for a while in the wild and try to find a draw point as fast as possible. Use the device to draw it in here so that Rinoa can use it to cast her spell. While you are out there, I want Irvine to use a bazooka I have down at my lab. This will saw us if they have shields. If they do have, we will need to use the Garden to brake in.", Odine said. "I find what you said pretty much correct and logical. Give me the device. I shall go get my gunblade and get ready to go out.", Squall said. Everyone nodded as he got out of the office.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter (XII)

"I am ready. Open the front gate.", Squall said as soon as he got to the front gate. Quistis opened the front gate for him. "Be careful. And take this with you. It's an intercom so that we can contact with each other.", Quistis said giving him the device. Squall nodded and got out of the Garden. At the same time Irvine took his place at the edge of the Quad. 'I am really gonna enjoy this!', he thought. Squall ran for a while around. He got from the edge of the island to the center and didn't find any draw points. "That can't be right.", Squall said to himself. "What's wrong Squall?", Odine's voice could be heard through the device Quistis gave him. "I can't find a draw point. This place was full of them.", Squall replied. "They must have done this.", Quistis said. "Guys, guys!", Rinoa said. "What happened, Rinoa?", Squall asked. "I tried to cast the spell without a draw point nearby and...", Rinoa said and got interrupted by Odine. "Why would you do that?", he asked. "I was just wondering! And anyway, I could sense a power attracting me into the castle. There must be a draw point there.", Rinoa said. "Irvine, shoot that rocket so we can get in there.", Odine said. Irvine shot immediately and waited for it. As soon as the rocket got close to the front gate of the castle, the shields activated and rocket turned to debris. "Go on with the Garden and I will get there as fast as I can.", Squall said and started moving towards the castle. The Garden's engines started and quickly got up to speed. In a matter of seconds, the Garden got really close to the front gate and the shields activated. The Garden kept pushing in order to get passed the shields and ram the front gate of the castle. At the same time in the Master's room, Ultimecia was channeling the shields spell. Orion was next to her and stared at her. She was giving almost all her energy in the shields and he could see that she was in pain cause of the Garden. "Curaga.", he said and casted the spell. "No!", Ultimecia said and took a step back. That made her stop channeling the shields. They heard the loud sound of the Garden taking down the front gate. "Nice one Orion!", she said as she tried to gather her pieces. She was in a pretty bad shape. "Why did you avoid my curaga spell?", Orion asked while helping her to stand up. "Cause I wanted to do this on my own.", Ultimecia replied. "Yeah. And look at you now! You can barely walk.", Orion said. But Ultimecia didn't even hear him. She casted a curaga spell on her. "Whatever.", Orion said and moved closer to the door. "If you open that door, the time spell is going to break. We don't want that, right?", Ulimecia asked when she took a sit. "I know what I am doing. I won't open it.", Orion said and moved close to her.

"Teams One to Five let's go on. Team Six, wait for your leader at the entrance of the castle.", Quistis yelled and everyone moved out of the Garden. "Where are you Squall?", Irvine asked. "I am on my way. Secure the first room and I will be right there.", he replied as he ran to the castle. "Let's secure this room.", every leader said to their groups. They got out and found a few monsters waiting for them. "Let's do this!", Zell yelled and they all attack. The monsters in less than a minute were out. "These monsters guys, weren't the monsters of this island. They were way to easy.", Zell said. Quistis nodded to him in agreement. "I am here!", Squall said to his group. "Let's go and help the others.", Laguna said as he was in Squall's group. Squall nodded and the whole group got right next to the other groups. "Let's move on guys.", Squall said and everyone agreed. Irvine opened the door and everyone got in there. As soon as the last SeeD got in there, the door behind them disappeared. "No way back, I guess.", Selphie said. "No monsters in here?", Zell asked. Suddenly a great light left all of the blinded. When they managed to open their eyes, they saw monsters everywhere. "Attack!", Squall yelled. This battle was more difficult than the previous one. As soon as the monsters got out, they tried to move forward. Again, when everyone passed through the door, it disappeared and suddenly a bright light left them blinded. "Weird.", Quistis said but no one really paid attention. They were all fighting the monsters. The rooms kept passing like this and at some point the leaders were teleporting some tired SeeDs back to the Garden. "Guys guys.", Quistis said. "Don't go to the next room.", Quistis said. Everyone got close to her. "I believe this is time magic. There must some kind of loop.", she said. "In that case, we can't do anything. Only the ones created can break it. Or we could break the wall, but we don't know where are you exactly.", Odine said. "Rinoa. Can you recast the spell and see where the draw point is?", Squall asked. "Of course.", Rinoa said and took a step back. She closed her eyes and tried to cast the spell. "It's in here.", she said as she opened her eyes. "Can you be more specific?", Squall asked. "I don't think so.", Rinoa replied and suddenly the bright light reappeared. "Let's just fight for now.", Zell said and everyone rushed in the battle. Squall was kind of getting distracted looking around for a draw point and that made him miss. He tried to attack with great power and as he missed his gunblade hit the floor making it crack open at that place. "Guys! I found it!", Squall said as he could see the purple beams of the draw point. "Squall! Behind you!", Rinoa yelled as she saw the monster that Squall missed, was trying to attack him from behind. "Bang!", Irvine said as he shot the monster. Squall looked at Irvine and nodded. "Guys!", Quistis said. Everyone turned to face her. "Look over there.", she pointed at the door. It was Orion running towards them. "He might have break the spell.", Quistis said. "Let's take him out.", Zell said and everyone got in position. "Thundaga!", Quistis yelled. "Firaga.", Selphie yelled. They both casted the spells but Orion was untouched by them. "Blind!", Rinoa yelled but it had no use on Orion. "How are we going to stop him?", Rinoa asked. "Zell now!", Squall said and they both started running towards Orion. Irvine took a position between them but not running with them. He stood back. "Protect!", Selphie and Rinoa casted on Zell and Squall. "Now!", Squall yelled again when they got pretty close to Orion. They both attacked him at the same time. Orion dodged Squall's attack but he couldn't dodge Zell's punch. He got down. "Do you believe you can get me like this?", Orion asked. "Nope. But this can.", Squall said as Irvine used his last pulse ammo on Orion. "BANG!", Irvine yelled. Squall equipped a capsule and attacked Orion. He was captured. "Odine, we are sending you Orion.", Squall said while Selphie was casting a teleport spell on the capsule. "Rinoa! Use the spell.", Odine said. "Right!", Rinoa said and got close to the draw point. She closed her eyes. As soon as she started casting the draw point's beams turned black and got into Rinoa. She started floating over the room. "This is kind of scary.", Zell said. Suddenly all the monsters disappeared. "I guess it wor...", Squall tried to say but a loud buzzing in his head make him stop and fall on the floor. "That hurts.", Selphie said. Everyone was down, except Rinoa. "Stop my love. You are hurting us.", Squall yelled at Rinoa. He tried to stand up, despite the pain. He managed to do so and took a good look at Rinoa's face. She seemed like she was in pain. "I am sorry my love.", he said and attacked her with his fist make her faint. They both fell down. The buzz stopped but Rinoa was unconscious now. "What was that Odine?", Squall asked. "I don't know! I didn't expect something like that.", Odine replied. "Curaga." Selphie said and tried to heal Rinoa. Rinoa opened her eyes. "It worked!", Squall said smiling at Rinoa. "What happened?", Rinoa asked as she tried to stand up. "You don't remember anything?", Squall asked. "Not at all. I just remember going close to the draw point. And...oh. Did you punch me?", Rinoa said looking at Squall. "I had to do so my love. You were hurting everyone, including yourself.", Squall replied. Rinoa smiled at him. "Let's just finish this.", Zell said. "Right! Let's teleport the SeeDs back to the Garden.", Squall said.

Some minutes later, the leaders were all alone. "Are we sure that the loop is broken?", Squall asked. "I can see a different room in behind that door.", Quistis replied. "Let's go and check this one out.", Squall said and everyone agreed. "Let's do this!", Zell yelled and rushed through the door first. Everyone followed his lead and end up in the Master Room. It was a room with no roof on top. They could see the cloudy sky. "It's so different with the last Master Room.", Selphie said. "At least there's this throne over there and this must be something like a warehouse.", Irvine said pointing at the throne and then the little room. "Where is she?", Rinoa asked. "Let's scatter around." Squall said. After a couple of minutes of searching they all gathered at the center of the room. "There's no one here.", Quistis said. "Where is she then?", Zell asked. "Oh my god!", Quistis said and took a step back. "You think the Garden?", Squall asked. "She must be there! Let's go and check it out.", Quistis said. "I've been trying this sometime ago. It's time to use it seriously.", Quistis added. "What are you talking about?", Selphie asked. "Quetzalcoatl!", Quistis said and they thunder bird appeared. "Can you please take us to the land beyond this island?", Quistis asked and the thunder bird got pretty close to the ground so that everyone can ride it. "Wow!", Rinoa said. "I know!", Quistis said. "Rush to the cliffs!", she said and Quetzalcoatl got them there in less than a minute. "Thank you.", everyone said and Quetzalcoatl disappeared. "We should see the Garden over that hill.", Irvine said pointing at the hill in front of them. Everyone ran to the top of the hill. As soon as they got up there, Rinoa turned around not to see and hugged Squall. Selphie fell to her knees staring at the ground. Quistis fell to her kness to hug Selphie. Irvine and Zell rushed down the cliff heading for the damaged Garden that made them react like this. "I hope everyone is fine.", Squall said. "GUYS!", Zell was yelling from down the cliff. "Let's go down there.", Squall said and they rushed down the cliff. They were relieved to see that everyone was fine. "Oh god. You are all fine!", Quistis said. "Well not everyone.", Cid said as he cried. "Edea!", Selphie said and got close to her body. "Ultimecia attacked the Garden, trying to rescue Orion. Edea saved us, but not herself.", Cid said and cried harder. Everyone got close to Edea and Cid and just sat there in quiet for her beloved Edea.

"Just pick it up!", Laguna yelled at the phone. "This is General Caraway. Who am I speaking with?", General said. "Finally! This is Laguna. We are in trouble.", Laguna replied. "What happened?", the General asked. "The Garden is destroyed. Completely. We need your help to get out of here. We are close to the island.", Laguna said briefly. "Give me some minutes. I'll call you back.", Caraway said and closed the phone. He got out of the Mansion and rushed to the President's Office. He knocked a couple of times and got inside. "Wow! Couldn't you wait for me to reply?", the President asked. "Sorry for that Mr. President but I have really important news.", Caraway said. "Take a sit.", the President said. Caraway took a sit. "The Garden needs our help.", he said. "I already told you! I am not going to involve in that war.", the President replied. "The war is over! The Garden is destroyed and they just need some rescue teams to go and get them here.", Caraway said. "Oh! In that case, take all the choppers and go. I want you to go personally. I'll inform a hotel to let them stay in there for some time.", the President said. "Thanks you so much Mr. President.", Caraway said and left the office. The President made a few calls and everything was ready. "I am coming to get you Laguna.", Caraway said as soon as Laguna answered his call. Laguna rushed to the others. "Everyone! I spoke to General Caraway and the President is sending us some rescue choppers and will let us stay at a hotel in Deling until we decide on what we'll do.", Laguna said. "Really?", Rinoa asked. "Yeah!", Laguna replied. "Let's wait for them then.", Cid said.

Everyone was still sitting around Cid and Edea's body, when the choppers could be heard. "It's time to go guys.", Odine said. Everyone agreed and stood up. The choppers got down and General Caraway got out of the first one. "Is everyone fine?", he asked Laguna. "Edea died. Everyone else is just fine.", he replied. "Oh. That's sad.", Caraway replied. "Everyone! There's plenty of room in the choppers.", Caraway yelled and everyone went to take a sit. Everyone except the six leaders. "Come one guys. Take a sit", Caraway said. "Dad.", Rinoa said and hugged him. "We are going to get our revenge. We are going to end this.", Squall said. "We can plan another attack.", Laguna said. "No. No plans. Just the six of us and them.", Squall replied. "We all agree with Squall.", Irvine said and everyone nodded in agreement. "Just be careful guys.", Cid said. They nodded and took a step back. "We'll see you soon in Deling.", Squall said and they turned around. They moved up the cliff at the time the choppers were up in the air. "We'll see them again.", Laguna said. "I know.", Caraway said. "Look over there! It's Quetzalcoatl!", Odine said. "They are going to get safely to the island.", Cid said. "They will return as heroes once more.", Cid said as the chopper headed for Deling city.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter (XIII)

It was almost noon when Quetzalcoatl landed next to the Castle at the Island Closest to Hell. "Here we are once again.", Squall said. "Any ideas?", he asked. The group was skeptical for a while. "I might have an idea.", Selphie declared. Squall nodded. "We could let them capture us.", Selphie said. "Why?", Irvine asked. "We will be in the Master's Room immediately.", Selphie replied. "I don't think we will have weapons on us from the moment we'll get captured.", Squall pointed out. "I believe someone can cast a certain spell on them.", Selphie said looking at Rinoa. Everyone turned and looked at Rinoa. "What?", she asked. "I am sure you know something that can help us out.", Selphie said. "Fine. I have a spell that I just learned. I am not completely sure it will work, but I could give it a try.", Rinoa said. "What kind of spell?", Squall asked. "A space magic. This spell gives me the ability to change a specific patch of matter with another one that I connected in my mind. That means, we can hide our weapons somewhere out here and I will make them appear right next to us.", Rinoa replied. "Wow! Do you have these kind of powers?", Squall asked. "Well, I never stopped discovering abilities from my "Sorceress Powers". I've been practicing.", Rinoa replied. "Why I don't hear about this for the first time?", Squall asked again. "It's not a big deal. I was just practicing some spells. Like everyone else.", Rinoa replied. "No. You've been practicing Sorceress spells. Like no one else.", Squall said with an angry tone. "Are you mad at me?", Rinoa asked. "Kind of.", Squall replied. "I'm sorry, but I have these powers. I can ignore them OR I can take advantage of them.", Rinoa said with an angry tone as well. "Hey guys! What are you doing right now?", Irvine asked and moved between them. Squall took a deep breath. "Fine. We'll talk about this another time. Let's just avenge the Garden and Edea.", Squall said. Everyone nodded. "Give me your weapons please.", Rinoa said. Everyone got their weapons out and placed them behind some rocks. Rinoa placed her hand over them and casted a spell. The weapons and the ground between were glowing with a green aura or a couple of seconds and then disappeared. "Let's go.", Rinoa said. Everyone got close to the wall of the castle. "Let's make some noise. Ifrit!", Zell said and summoned the fire fiend. Ifrit appeared and start punching the wall immediately. This made the wall come down and a huge cloud of dust appeared leaving all them blinded. They waited for a minute to clear out and then opened their eyes. They saw Ultimecia and Orion on the other side. 'What if they don't want to capture us and just kill us?', Squall thought. 'This plan is a disaster.', he thought again. "Let's finish this!", Orion said and tried to attack Squall. "Wait. Let's take them inside. We could use them somehow.", Ultimecia said. 'That was close.', Squall thought.

The group was kept in an empty room. "This must be the room we saw earlier.", Irvine said. "You must be right. What are we going to do now? We are behind a steel door.", Squall said. "We could make a plan and the escape.", Quistis said. No one replied. Everyone was staring at the room. "Am I the only one that sees a light through the wall and no one have spoken about it yet?", Zell asked. "We all see it Zell. We just try to figure out what it is.", Irvine replied. "I believe I know what it is.", Quistis said. Everyone looked at her. "I believe this is a time wrap. Do you guys remember the lecture Odine gave about them?", Quistis asked. "Not really.", Zell said. "Just tell us what this thing does.", Squall said. "Alright. A time wrap is a time and space anomaly. It can appear anywhere. Once matter gets in it, it is divided in tiny particles and it is duplicated. The duplicated particles get out on the other side but the originals are destroyed. This sounds like a teleport but not even close. Well, you do teleport from a plae to another one but not always. There is a chance that both particles appear at the original spot, so we have a clone. It is a really dangerous thing that can easily become a black hole. We should destroy it at first sight.", Quistis explained. "That sounds like a plan to me.", Squall said. Everyone nodded. Rinoa closed her eyes and started glowing with a blue aura. Suddenly the weapons appeared behind the door. "Damn it!", Rinoa said when she opened her eyes. "I believe I can open the door.", Zell said and took some steps back. "Do it man!", Irvine said trying to embrace him. Zell ran through the door but stopped before he managed to reach it. "What's wrong?", Irvine asked. "I need some Aura.", Zell said. "Oh come on! It's just a door!", Irvine said and moved close to the door. "Let me try again then.", Zell said and took some steps back. He ran to the door and kicked really hard that broke. That caused a loud noise. "We must hurry. They must know we escaped." Selpie said. Everyone nodded and quickly got out of the room. "Where are they?", Squall whispered. "Let's just destroy the time wrap.", Quistis replied whispering. Squall nodded and got close to the time wrap. "Let me shoot it.", Irvine said. "No! I want to do this.", Selphie said. "Hurry up!", Squall said and everyone took some steps back. "Ultima!", Selphie said and some force started gathering above the time wrap, forming a bright star. Suddenly, Ultimecia appeared. "Don't let her destroy the time wrap.", Ultimecia said to Orion. Orion immediately tried to attack Selphie but a bullet stop him and allowed Selphie to finish the spell. A great explosion occurred and everyone was pushed to the wall by the force. A black cloud of smoke couldn't allow them to see anything. Squall tried to find anyone of his friends. He touched a hand in his blind search. It was a female hand. He could understand that from being soft and thin. "Is that you my love?", he asked. "No it's not!", Ultimecia said and hit him. Squall was thrown a few meters. "Tornado!", Rinoa yelled and casted the spell. In a matter of seconds the smoke was clear and everyone could see again. Squall was down and Orion was pretty close to him. "Protect.", Rinoa said and casted on Squall. Orion attacked but didn't hurt Squall too much. That gave Irvine the opportunity to close up to Orion. "Bang!", Irvine said while shooting at him. Orion had to leave Squall alone for now. "Thanks.", Squall said and stood up. "Griever! Let's finish them!", Ultimecia said and the powerful Guardian Force appeared. "Everyone. Summon a GF to fight him.", Squall said. "Rinoa, be extremely careful this time with Griever summoned. I will explain later.", Squall said to Rinoa. Rinoa nodded in agreement and took her position. Everyone casted a GF and they fought Griever. The group concentrated on taking on Orion and Ultimecia.

The battle was alive for some time now. Squall and his friends tried to defeat any of their opponents for a long time, but no use. "We have to distract them somehow.", Quistis suggested. "Let's try to attack them at the same time.", Zell said. Everyone nodded in agreement. "You are going down!", Zell yelled when everyone started running towards Ultimecia and Orion. Zell closed up to Orion really quick and punched him as hard as he could. It was a powerful punch which lead to Orion being thrown to the wall behind him. He quickly got up and tried to attack Zell. Squall rushed and got between them. "Protect!", Selphie said while casting the spell on Squall. Orion hit him, but with minimum damage. Irvine took this chance and fired a bullet towards Orion, but Ultimecia got on the bullet's way and deflect it. She created a big piece of ice threw it towards Irvine right away, but Selphie was there for him. "Reflect!", Selphie said and casted the spell on Irvine. Selphie on her turn, casted the same spell as Ultimecia, but this time pointed Ultimecia. Orion, who managed to escape from Squall and Zell, jumped in the air and hit the ice. It turned immediately into small pieces. "Oh, come on!", Selphie said. "How are the Gfs doing?", Squall asked as soon as he got close to Selphie. "Not good. I don't think they will be able to hold Griever for much longer.", Selphie replied. Ultimecia laughed evilly. Everyone turned and looked at her. "Did you believe that you can defeat my immortal monster?", she asked. "You mean your GF.", Rinoa said. "Nope. He is not my GF any more. That's why he is so powerful now!", Ultimecia said and laughed even louder. "Can this be done?", Squall asked Quistis. "I don't know!", Quistis replied. "Of course you can with some help from some ancient magic.", Orion replied. "Let's just finish this and we'll see about Griever later.", Squall said and everyone resumed battling. "Let's get really close this time Selphie.", Squall said and both of them started running. "Squall! Watch out behind you!", Rinoa yelled. Squall turned around and saw Griever closing up to him really fast. As soon as Griever got really close, Squall jumped high up in the air and avoided it. He took a look at his ring. It was glowing so bright that he couldn't look at it directly. 'Let's finish him.', he thought. "Kill him!", Ultimecia yelled and Griever started closing up again. Squall closed his eyes and concentrated. All the action happened so fast that no one could help Squall. But for Squall, everything got in slow motion. He opened his eyes and started running towards Griever. He jumped vertically and avoided Griever's attack. While he was in the mid air, he stabbed the creature in the heart. Griever fell down and let out a loud cry. It turned into a green light and got in Rinoa's necklace. "Whoa! I feel so powerful all of a sudden.", Rinoa said. "What did you do?", Ultimecia asked. Rinoa's body started glowing with a green color. "What's going on?", Selphie asked. Rinoa started floating in the air and lifted her arms in the sky. "Just attack her!", Orion said. Ultimecia nodded and tried to cast a spell but she was interrupted by Rinoa's spell. "Apocalypse!", Rinoa yelled and casted the spell. "How is that possible? That's my spell!", Ultimecia said but couldn't react. She was hit hard from that spell and felt unconscious. "No! It can't end like this!", Orion said when he took Ultimecia in his arms. "Rinoa! Again!", Squall said. "I can't repeat that. It drained all my energy.", she replied. "Let's capture them then!", Irvine suggested. "We won't be able to hold them somewhere. I know it's cruel, but we'll have to kill them right now.", Squall said. "No. We'll find something to do with them. I know they are dangerous, but I don't want to kill them.", Selphie said. "She is right Squall.", Quistis said. "We can keep an eye on them and you go to Deling with Quetzalcoatl and ask Odine what to do with them.", Squall said. "That could be a plan, but turn around.", Rinoa said. Everyone turned around and was surprised. Ultimecia and Orion were gone and in their place there was a time wrap. "That was stupid.", Selphie said. "Let's just destroy this and go back to Deling. We don't have anything to do here. Let's go and tell Odine everything.", Squall said. Everyone agreed and got on Quetzalcoatl. 'Let's go my friend. Take us to Deling and fast.', Quistis thought and Quetzalcoatl got up in the air.

Along with the nightfall, the group reached Deling City. "Let's head for the Mansion. Your father will tell us where Odine is.", Squall said to Rinoa. "Right. Let's move to the Mansion.", Rinoa said. They got in the bus and in a couple of minutes they reached the Mansion. They moved quickly out of the bus, but they stood still for some minutes with what they saw over there. As far as they eye could see, there were time wraps. Everywhere. They couldn't cross the bridge to the Mansion cause of the time wraps on it. On the other side of the bridge, there was Odine. "We need to talk.", Odine yelled at them.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter (XIV)

"Here is my report.", Quistis said when everyone managed to get in the Mansion. She stood up and saluted facing Cid. "Oh, come on. Stop the formalities. We don't even have a Garden for a reason.", Cid said. "Are you okay Cid?", Laguna asked him. "Just do the report Quistis.", Cid said. "Okay.", Quistis said and took a sit. "We returned to the Island and managed to find a way inside. It was Selphie's clever idea to get in there as "prisoners". It worked perfectly. We soon were in the Master Room with all our weapons and ready to fight. As soon as we got out of the room we were held, we found a time wrap. We didn't really know what to do with it, so we decided to destroy it. When we did so, Ultimecia and Orion appeared charging an attack to us. While we were fighting them, Squall managed to kill Griever, which was pretty strange as Griever is a GF. Orion said it was ancient magic that allowed Ultimecia to do this. After Griever was killed, Rinoa absorbed a great amount of energy and casted a powerful spell. Apocalypse. She hit Ultimecia hard and she fainted. We made a mistake there and let Orion alone with Ultimecia, discussing what to do with them. Orion took the chance and escaped with Ultimecia. In their place there was a time wrap, which was destroyed by Irvine. We then summoned a GF and came here.", Quistis explained. "It wasn't the brightest idea to destroy the time wrap, when you didn't know what to do with it.", Odine said. "I take full responsibility. It was I who had that idea.", Squall said quickly. "That's not true!", Rinoa said. "We all agreed to do so.", Irvine said. "Well, don't worry about it. You weren't informed about it. This was a theoretical phenomenon. We never expected to see it here. That means, Ultimecia has a lot of knowledge about time and space. She must have discovered them in the future.", Odine said. "But why are there time wraps everywhere?", Squall asked. "When you destroy a time wrap it will appear somewhere else. But, there's a chance that the time wrap will appear in two places. That must have occurred and it must have appeared somewhere with people. They must have destroyed it and that led to that result.", Odine said. "We can't stop people all over the world destroying time wraps.", Laguna said. "We can actually. We can use the same method that Galbania used once to contract with every communication device around the world. That could work.", Odine said. "What are we going to do with the time wraps after that?", Squall asked. "We could seal them somehow.", Odine said. "Do you have any idea?", Cid asked. "I started some theoretical experiments in the past about them, but I stopped. If I run a few tests with them, I believe I can found out a way.", Odine replied. "It sounds like a plan to me.", Laguna said. "We are missing something useful here.", Quistis said. "I know.", Cid said. "We could use the Garden to travel around the world and seal the time wraps.", he added. "We can do that!", Squall said. "We are all going to help you rebuild the Garden and we will take on this important mission.", he added. "We can't do that! The Garden is very expensive to be rebuilt.", Cid said. "First of all. We can find money. Secondly. The SeeDs will be glad to be the workers of the Garden. I am sure they miss it a lot by now. Lastly, we all want to help.", Squall said. "We want to live in it once again.", Rinoa said. "Yes we do!", everyone agreed. Squall smiled at Rinoa. "So, we have plan!", Laguna said. "Odine will go back to Esthar and do his stuff. Cid will stay here and do his stuff.", Laguna said and he was interrupted by the laughter. Everyone laughed at the way he was saying the plan. He laughed as well. "So. The rest of us will got to Dollet and find a way to inform everyone. Right?", Laguna asked. "No!", Odine said. "Don't go to Dollet. Esthar already has a ready to use machine in case of emergency. We could use that.", Odine said. "I am going with Odine at Esthar and I will tell everyone our story. I will explain what happened in the world and I will tell them not to destroy the time wraps. Everyone else, stay here and help Cid. I will be back quickly to help as well.", Squall said. "Can Quistis come as well?", Odine asked. "Why?", she asked. "I would love to have your help at the lab. You are doing a great job in there.", Odine said smiling. "I would love to help you.", Quistis replied. "Let's go then! We must tell everyone quickly.", Squall said. "Wait wait wait.", Rinoa said. "What about Ultimecia and Orion?", she asked when everyone turned and looked at her. "We don't really know anything about them. I believe we will find out something about them when the time is right.", Odine said.

Eight months were enough for the Garden to be almost ready for his first journey. "Wake up honey.", Rinoa said while lying next to Squall. "You have to go to the Garden.", she added. Squall got up and took a sit to the bed for a while. "It's almost done my love. We are going to our new home in a few days.", Squall said. He stood up and went to their baby. "She's sleeping so peacefully.", Squall whispered smiling. "I'll see you later my love.", Rinoa said when Squall opened their room's door. "Good morning!", Zell said when he saw Squall. "Good morning Zell. Where's Irvine and Selphie?", Squall asked. "They stayed all night at the Garden and helped around. They will come here when we go over there.", he replied. "Good morning guys.", Caraway said when he got in the kitchen. "Good morning.", they both said. "A few days left. Do you want anything specific to get you from Deling before you leave?", he asked. "Not really.", Squall said. "We are gonna come again at Deling anyway.", he added. "Have you made a plan about the sealing process?", Zell asked. "We are working at it with Cid. One is for sure. We are going to Esthar first. We are going to pick up Odine and Quistis. That will also be our flight test.", Squall replied. Zell nodded. "We should hit the road now.", Zell said after they finished their breakfast. "Right. We'll see you later General.", Squall said. "Is there any chance that you will call me Dad or just Caraway?", Caraway asked. "I really like the "General" stuff.", Squall said. "Fine.", Caraway said smiling. "See you later boys.", he said when they reached the door.

"Hey Cid.", Squall said when he entered the Office. "Good morning Squall. I spoke with Odine just an hour ago.", Cid said. "What did he say?", Squall asked. "He finished his machine yesterday. He has already sealed every time wrap in Esthar city.", Cid said. "That's some great news! Any news from Ultimecia and/or Orion?", Squall asked. "Actually yes!", Cid replied. Squall was surprised. "We haven't heard from them in a long time. What did they do this time?", Squall asked. "Nothing. While Odine and Quistis were walking around the city, sealing time wraps, they found Orion barely walking. Quistis quickly tackled him and threw him on the floor. He looked at her and then she understood that it was Seifer and not Orion.", Cid said. "That's really confusing.", Squall said. "I know. Odine tested him and found that he was free from Orion. That's why Odine believes that Orion gave his powers to Ultimecia. Rinoa must have hit her really hard with that apocalypse spell and Orion new that Ultimecia is the greatest villain of all times.", Cid said. "That makes sense. So, what about Seifer? Is he alright now?", Squall asked. "Yes, he is just fine. We have some other news as well. Odine offered to stay in the Garden for the rest of his life and teach what he knows.", Cid said. "That's amazing! Well, we were planning to tell you the very same thing. We would love as a group to all stay in the Garden and teach what we all know. And now that Seifer is alright, he can help out as well! If he wants of course.", Squall said. "Wow. That would be awesome. Seifer has already offered to help with the Garden.", Cid said. "Amazing! Let's check how our home is going.", Squall said and got close to a monitor. "Well, look over there.", Cid said pointing a specific screen. The screen was showing a few pupils having some trouble in carrying some equipment inside the Garden. "I'll go help them out.", Squall said. Cid nodded.

A few days later, the Garden's engines started once more. Everyone was at his proper positions. At their old rooms. They planned to stay there for a long long time. They had a strong bond with the Garden. They couldn't just leave it and live somewhere else. That's why every mission was just an excuse for them to stay longer there. After the time wraps were sealed their mission was to make their families in the Garden. There were no news from Ultimecia for the past 2 years and the world was safe once more. Odine was the only one who knew the truth. Seifer saw Ultimecia when he woke up. He saw her lying next to him and he couldn't understand what had happened. That's why he left and found himself near Esthar city, where he found Odine and Quistis. He told everything to Odine and he asked him to keep it a secret. Ultimecia is hiding from the world till she gets her energy back. That's when she will reappear once more in our heroes lives.


End file.
